Access To Dentistry Isn't Just a UK Problem
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- Published: Tuesday, 27 June 2023 07:53
- Written by Peter Ingle
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Anyone reading a newspaper, watching the news, or glancing at social media will know that the UK has huge problems with access to dental care. GDPUK now only rarely writes about practices closing, leaving the NHS, or ‘dental desert stories,’ as our readers have seen so many already.
And it is easy to assume that this is a particularly British problem. Reports in the last couple of days suggest that the UK’s problems are not unique.
Switzerland is generally seen as an advanced and prosperous European nation. Despite this the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation has recently reported that all is not well for dental patients. One patient’s story exemplified the difficulties that many face. In 2022 aged 63 the pensioner from Geneva said that his teeth started “falling out like autumn leaves." He was told that he would have to wear a dental prosthesis. Dental expenses are not reimbursed by the Swiss compulsory basic health insurance. Unable to afford a likely bill of CHF 10,000 (nearly £9,000) he at first considered having treatment abroad.
In the end he was able to have treatment at the dental clinic of the University of Geneva which offers patients a 70% discount on treatments carried out by students. Many others are giving up on having their teeth professionally looked after. Worst affected are those not on welfare, as social security recipients have their dental costs covered by the state, but whose income is insufficient to pay for dental treatment.
The International Health Policy Survey, a study carried out by the Commonwealth Fund, an American foundation, estimates that in 2020, 26.4% of the Swiss population opted out of dental treatment or a check-up for cost reasons. This figure has risen by 5.7 percentage points in four years. This is not a problem restricted to the UK and Switzerland. In an international comparison, the number of people who go without treatment is higher in Switzerland than in France (18.5%) or Germany, but lower than in the United States (36.2%).
Meanwhile in Australia, Channel 9 News was referring to the all too familiar, “Cost of Living Crisis.” Also familiar to UK dental teams was the revelation that preventable dental conditions are leading to tens of thousands of hospitalisations each year. The outgoing CDO England, might have mixed feelings watching as a Senator explained that the problem was, “a system that doesn’t treat teeth as part of the body.” Showing similarities with the Swiss situation, an Australian Dental Association spokesperson explained that those who could not afford private care but earned above the means tested benefits threshold, were particularly affected. The preferred solution of consumer groups and the public is the expansion of free treatment categories.
At the same time The Guardian had a story about UK patients who were getting prompt access to dental emergency care. There was a catch. To quote performers there in 2002, they needed to be at the Right Place Right Time.
Glastonbury’s Festival Medical Services charity, has a dental clinic. Chris Howes, the charity’s managing director, said many people were using its dental services. “We have a dental clinic here, and we did notice that there are a lot of people very early on after we opened who were turning up with dental problems.”
Emergency medical services open a month before the festival for staff and construction workers setting up the facilities. “We’ve seen a lot of the site crew, people working here on the build, who haven’t had access to a dentist either because they don’t have one or they couldn’t get off to see someone.”
Patients in Plymouth with a reported seven year wait to see a dentist who are thinking of buying their tickets for 2024, should know that he did add, “We don’t offer routine check-ups or teeth polishing or anything like that – it is emergency dentistry that we do.”
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