Within 12 months, a total of 3,100 extra NHS dental places will be available to patients after the Fairfield House surgery and Associated Dental Practice are increasing their numbers.

This is seen as a great step forward in terms of local dental care.

The manager of dental provisions in Devon, Andrew Harris, stated that it is ‘great news’ that more people will be able to see an NHS dentist.

Harris states that work has been put in to ensure that nobody in the area has to wait for an NHS dentist. The new places will go some way to achieving this.

Ann Keen, health minister, says that NHS dentists treat around 250,000 patients each working day. Aims in dentistry mean that everyone should be able to see an NHS dentist, if they want to, by March 2011.

Results should be seen after over £2 billion has been invested in NHS dentistry. This has led to more dental practices across the country, expanding practices and a larger number of places available.

In general, access to NHS dentistry is beginning to increase. However, patients will still need to be able to fund their treatments according to NHS cost brackets. Dental insurance is recommended for anyone who wants peace of mind as to what they can afford to protect their health.

This shows that 75% of all Scottish adults rate their health to be either ‘very good’ or ‘good’ and just 7% claim it to be ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’.

Cabinet secretary for health and wellbeing, Nicola Sturgeon, commented on the figures, stating that Scotland has had a reputation for poor health, though these findings show that things are definitely improving.

In particular, Sturgeon commented that ‘positive steps’ are being made when it comes to dental health.

However, improvements still need to be made to ensure everyone has access to a dentist. Dental insurance can give peace of mind to many who want to be able to stay as healthy as possible.

The main health problem still lies in the area of drinking alcohol, where high consumption is an issue for a large percentage of the population.

Sturgeon stated that the Scottish Government is planning to invest nearly £120 million to help tackle the misuse of alcohol, as well as strong changes in policy to help break the Scottish relationship with alcohol.

The Scottish Health Survey is now run annually, where results will be published at the end of the year. The survey is meant to give results for NHS Board areas after 4 years of collecting data. This is the first report to be produced since a major review of the way the survey works.

However, by doing so many patients are leaving themselves exposed to problems if things go wrong. Normal travel insurance policies will not cover the cost of compilations of elective surgery (rather than emergency surgery).

Recently one plan to cover dental tourism has been launched, but it doesn’t come cheap.

The bad news is that this cover only starts 48 hours after the treatment has been completed, and then lasts for up to 31 days. However, consumer groups have stated that this gap between treatment and cover leaves a ‘grey area’.

Critics are worried that people may be put off seeking treatment for problems just because 48 hours have not yet past. Others may not realise just when they are covered and when they are not.

Patients can save hundreds of pounds when travelling abroad for treatments, including dentistry but also extending to other surgery and cosmetic procedures. However, some patients have been hit hard when they discovered they weren’t covered.

Procedures in the UK can end up costing more than overseas, though the procedures are less complicated when it comes to things going wrong. Instead, if patients in the UK opt for dental insurance, they can be sure to afford treatment within the country.

Within the last two years, the NHS Information Centre data has shown that only 58.3 percent saw a dentist.

A familiar story, these figures come after the NHS dentistry contract was changed in 2006. It attempted to overhaul the system, yet has only made things worse.

Since the contract changes came into place, a number of dentists left the NHS claiming that they were being forced to work harder for less pay, and did not have the time they needed for each patient.

Liberal Democrat health spokesman, Norman Lamb, states that the flaws are fundamental, and many of the good dentists have left the NHS.

Another major problem is that even seemingly simple procedures are now costing the patient more than in the past, though the main complaint is that they do not have access to an NHS dentist at all. And, for those dentists still working on the NHS, many do not want to take on new patients with bad teeth. The simple fact is that they will be paid the same for less work with healthier patients.

A new set of recommendations has recently been published, helping to address many of these patients and to ensure both dentists and patients are happy.

The DCS provides a free service to help patients resolve any problems with their dental care. In total, more than 5,000 complaints have been solved since the launch of the service three years ago.

Of all those that took the survey, 37% had made a complaint about an aspect of dental work. However, half of those did not feel that their complaint was taken care of to their satisfaction. Among these patients, the most common complaint was that the treatment was not effective (in 13% of patients) and that it was too expensive (12%).

The patients that wanted to complain but didn’t most commonly took issue with the cost of their treatment (33%) as well as their treatment being ineffective or unnecessary, and appointments being made at inconvenient times.

Most patients held back from complaining simply because they thought it wasn’t worth it, or that their complaints wouldn’t be taken seriously. Among those surveyed ten percent never visited the dentist.

If you do have a complaint about your dental service, the DCS can advice on where to go to complain about NHS and private practices.

If the cost is your top complaint, then dental insurance can help to relieve the pressure for any necessary treatments.

The centre hopes to improve standards and training when it comes to modern approaches for dental care in London. It will also offer professional and personal development to improve clinical leadership.

The London Dental Education Centre (LonDEC), costing £2 million, was opened on 30 June as a joint enterprise between King’s College London and London Deanery.

The centre includes a training suite, with 26 clinical simulation units. This will help practitioners develop news skills.

LonDEC will be used for hands-on training and lectures, as well as being a centre for Masters degrees run by King’s College.

LonDEC includes a mannequin that can be programmed as a way of simulating emergency situations to improve dental care.

The dean of postgraduate dentistry, Elizabeth Jones, states that the initiative is exciting for the city. It gives dentists and professionals in the industry a state-of-the-art environment to practice emergencies and acquire new skills. It also helps dental professionals to learn as a team about areas that will improve the safety of patients.

Dean of the Dental Institute at King’s College, Professor Nairn Wilson, stated that they are delighted to work together with London Deanery. They hope that LonDEC will become a platform to develop innovations in dentistry and lifelong learning.

The facilities of LonDEC will also be available to hire by interested parties, further information can be gathered by contacting Bill Sharpling of LonDEC.

It has been getting harder and harder in recent years to register with an NHS dentist, meaning that patients are finding it difficult even to go for a basic check-up. This has led to a sharp rise in the number who are forced to use private dental care. However, as many as 43% of the population are still put off from visiting the dentist altogether because of the cost.

A recent survey, covered out by Simplyhealth, has shown that 71% of companies believe that they are responsible for the oral health of their employees. One of the main benefits of companies offering this is that they can avoid disruption caused by employees finding a dental appointment.

Corporate sales manager of Denplan, Pam Whelan, is encouraging people to make use of this cover not just in emergencies, but also as a preventative measure.

General manager of Bupa Dental, Ivan Kennedy, states that dental insurance is a tangible benefit for employees. Even if the employee needs to pay part of the cost, there is still peace of mind in knowing they won’t be hit with large dental bills.

One company implanting this benefit is The Health Store. Its personnel manager states that the benefit helps individuals in finding an NHS dentist, and ensures they will be able to get treatment.

The Dental Plan Ltd (TDP) was setup by the registered dentist Dr John Barry with colleague Dr Kenny Barr. The Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) provided nearly £46,000 for the purpose. This funding was used to enlarge the workforce for the practice and the premises, which are located in a business park outside Thurso.

Dr Barry made a statement about the venture, saying that the initial work has already been done to test the market. They are now making moves to the next level and are “delighted” that the HIE has provided support.

The business was set up in the north Highlands due to the skill base around the area of Caithness. Dr Barry adds that they aim to grow their staff numbers to 20 in the near future, working towards becoming a market leader in supplying quality services to professionals in the field of dentistry.

From their base in the north Highlands, Barry hopes to be able to deal with professionals across the UK – and possibly overseas.

The business was set up due to the fact that, though dentists may be highly qualified, they are not necessarily qualified in business. TDP will help dentists to operate more efficiently.

Keith Muir, from HIE, stated that there is a large market for these services which TDP can benefit from tapping into.

At the labour party conference of 1999, Tony Blair pledged that everyone would be able to have access to an NHS dentist, though this never happened. By March 2007, the Department of Health admitted that two million people did not have a dentist. And by the end of last year, less and less patients had access to a dentist despite more money being put into the system, and more NHS dentists being available. This is why the Health Secretary announced an inquiry into the situation.

The report that came about as a result of this inquiry largely looks into the dental changes that were brought about in 2006, where NHS dentists started being paid a fixed annual income for performing a set amount of work, instead of being paid 400 different fees for separate treatments – leading to a number of dentists leaving the NHS.

Since the changes of 2006 there was a sharp fall in the amount of complex work done on the NHS. The recommendations of the new report state that there will be new payments, with the cost of fillings being reduced. This will also help dentists to focus on general oral health rather than specific treatments.

In Europe the trend is more toward patient-funded treatments, making dental insurance almost a necessity.

In the last year over 1,100 patients in the Hampshire area needed emergency dental treatment in hospitals, which cost the local NHS almost £700,000.

Portsmouth specifically has the sixth highest rate in Britain, out of a total of 152 primary care trusts for emergency dental procedures.

43 percent of those in the city, adding up to 113,611, have not seen an NHS dentist in the last two years.

The national average is 55 percent, and critics are claiming that the government has not been doing enough to solve the problem.

A new system was put in place in 2006, and is blamed for many of the problems. This saw dentists getting a set fee for treatments, where in the past they would have billed then NHS for as much work as they liked.

Conservative parliamentary candidate for Portsmouth South claims that 172 people in the area were forced to go to hospital for their dental care. He states that the figures are not surprising considering the number of people who are not registered at an NHS dentist.

The figures show that, across Portsmouth, Hampshire and West Sussex, more than a million patients have not seen a dentist in the last two years. The figures for Hampshire were above average, at 58 percent.

However, Debbie Tarrant from the Portsmouth City Teaching PCT states that additional dental services will come into operation next year, and that some of the emergency figures quotes could have been a result of accident and injury.