Dentistry comes under Pressure for Inaccessibility
An event has recently been staged to heighten awareness for the accessibility of dentistry in the UK. The debate was panelled by a multitude of international speakers and experts in a number of dentistry fields.
The event was organised by the Faculty for General Dental Practice in the UK after reports were made, which demonstrated how the number of patients receiving regular dental check-ups has declined over the last few years.
The day kicked off with a debate over what people regarded as the definition of access, as well as what problems and issues dental access has, which was attended and listened to by 60 individuals from the international community.
Arguably the most appropriate definition that was put forward came from Paul Batchelor, senior lecturer in dental public health at UCL and course director of the Faculty for General Dental Practice’s Diploma in Dental Health Services Leadership and Management, who stated access as “the opportunity to use a service if the individual feels it appropriate.”
While many at the event believed dentistry to still be very inaccessible, there were those who argued otherwise, Mike Warburton, former national director for GP and Dental Access at the Department of Health believes that the Department of Health has made great changes in making dentistry more accessible to the public, he also stated that 96% of patients who attempted to book an appointment with NHS Dental were successful within 6 months.
Paul Batchelor went on to state that access had not been made easy enough and the main issue was cost as he commented “if you want to increase attendance, offer access as a free entitlement through lifelong registration.”
A talk was also given on dental accessibility in the US in comparison to the UK where it was stated, while attendance is bad in Britain the lack of free health to the degree of the NHS in the USA has hindered accessibility in the States to a larger degree than in the UK.
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