NHS dentistry to be rebooted under the Conservatives

NHS dentistry will be overhauled under a future Tory government, including reintroducing dental screening for five-year-olds in schools and scrapping incentives and missed-appointment charges.

The initiative, launched by shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley, will also require dentists trained at the taxpayers’ expense to work for the NHS for at least five years.

Lansley said: “Over a million people have lost their NHS dentist in just three years and dentists are fed up with the flawed, system of perverse incentives that Labour have introduced.

“A Conservative government will…make preventative treatment a real priority because we urgently need to improve our nation's dental health.”

21 May 2009