More Britons Shy Away From Seeing Their Dentists

November 27, 2008 9:54 a.m. EST

London, England (AHN) - A smaller number of Britons saw their NHS dentists the past two years. The less frequent dental visits were not due to fear of tooth extraction but because of changes in dental contracts.

According to the NHS Information Center, a little more than half of the British population or 26.9 people had a dental appointment in the past two years up to June, but it was 1.2 million less compared to the same period in 2006. Of the 26.9 million Britons who saw their dentists, 19.3 million were adults while 7.6 million were children.

The new contracts removed the various pay bands and left only three which meant dentist could only charge the same amount for one to 10 fillings. The NHS dentists are also assigned a quota of patients in a year, with those who fail to meet their quota having a portion of their pay reduced.

Because of the new contract, over 1,000 government dentists left the National Health Service in protest over the new policies.

Despite the smaller number of patients, the number of treatment government dentists provided went up 1.4 percent.

Meanwhile, Health Secretary Alan Johnson and Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell announced Wednesday the scrapping of sick notes doctors write to excuse employees from work. The sick slips have been in use by British physicians for the past six decades.

Instead, electronic fit notes will be made by general practitioners that will describe what a worker can do and cannot. The new system seeks to stop the use of sick notes which had been the cause of thousands of British workers being jobless on a long-term.