Dental Negligence | Targets Blamed for NHS Poor Care

A survey of 343 dentists has revealed that 92% of those polled have removed a tooth where alternative treatments may have been available.

Target Driven Funding

The way in which funding is allocated to dental surgeries is directly related to the number of ‘units of dental activity’ (UDA) recorded by each practice.

This system has been blamed for the unnecessary removal of teeth, as the same UDA is awarded for an extraction as is awarded to a more lengthy process such as root canal surgery.

This means that there is currently little incentive for dentists to carry out more time consuming and complex procedures.

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