Comments on: NHS DENTISTS AS RARE AS HEN’S TEETH http://www.healthcarebs.com/2008/04/22/nhs-dentists-as-rare-as-hens-teeth/ Cleaning the Augean Stables of the Health Care Debate Fri, 05 Dec 2008 09:00:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Joe C. http://www.healthcarebs.com/2008/04/22/nhs-dentists-as-rare-as-hens-teeth/#comment-106454 Joe C. Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:48:08 +0000 http://www.healthcarebs.com/2008/04/22/nhs-dentists-as-rare-as-hens-teeth/#comment-106454 If dental care is generally affordable, then why bother with the byzantine NHS dental plan at all? Dental care generally does not involve life-or-death situations, so why should Taxpayer A fund the dental care that Taxpayer B needs as a result of drinking too much Irn-Bru? It seems more prudent to just scrap the whole thing and give the taxpayers back their money. If dental care is generally affordable, then why bother with the byzantine NHS dental plan at all? Dental care generally does not involve life-or-death situations, so why should Taxpayer A fund the dental care that Taxpayer B needs as a result of drinking too much Irn-Bru? It seems more prudent to just scrap the whole thing and give the taxpayers back their money.

]]> By: Marc Brown http://www.healthcarebs.com/2008/04/22/nhs-dentists-as-rare-as-hens-teeth/#comment-106197 Marc Brown Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:56:12 +0000 http://www.healthcarebs.com/2008/04/22/nhs-dentists-as-rare-as-hens-teeth/#comment-106197 You're right - NHS dental provision is an ongoing problem, partly because many dentists choose to work only with private patients (but fees aren't huge so access all round is pretty good). However, did you know that the US has 100 million people without dental insurance? I think we have another example of Catron calling the kettle black. See http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/business/11decay.html?em&ex=1192334400&en=f0c14efae07f84f9&ei=5087%0A 'With dentists’ fees rising far faster than inflation and more than 100 million people lacking dental insurance, the percentage of Americans with untreated cavities began rising this decade, reversing a half-century trend of improvement in dental health. 'Previously unreleased figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that in 2003 and 2004, the most recent years with data available, 27 percent of children and 29 percent of adults had cavities going untreated. The level of untreated decay was the highest since the late 1980s and significantly higher than that found in a survey from 1999 to 2002.' You’re right - NHS dental provision is an ongoing problem, partly because many dentists choose to work only with private patients (but fees aren’t huge so access all round is pretty good). However, did you know that the US has 100 million people without dental insurance? I think we have another example of Catron calling the kettle black.

See http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/business/11decay.html?em&ex=1192334400&en=f0c14efae07f84f9&ei=5087%0A

‘With dentists’ fees rising far faster than inflation and more than 100 million people lacking dental insurance, the percentage of Americans with untreated cavities began rising this decade, reversing a half-century trend of improvement in dental health.

‘Previously unreleased figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that in 2003 and 2004, the most recent years with data available, 27 percent of children and 29 percent of adults had cavities going untreated. The level of untreated decay was the highest since the late 1980s and significantly higher than that found in a survey from 1999 to 2002.’

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