§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will review the current arrangements for patients giving consent to dental work. [12380]
§ Mr. MaloneWe have no plans to review these arrangements. The General Dental Council, in its guidance on professional conduct and fitness to practise, advises that dentists must obtain valid consent prior to treatment and have a duty to explain what treatment they propose to provide. The form that the patient signs before treatment and the general dental services regulations reflect this.
§ Mr. PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to improve NHS oversight of courses of treatment proposed by dentists. [12466]
§ Mr. MaloneThe dental reference service provides independent professional dental patient examination and related services in response to requests from general dental practitioners, national health service managers, health departments and the Dental Practice Board, by which it is managed. Funding was provided in 1996–97 for the expansion of the DRS to 60 dentists.
§ Mr. ThurnhamTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement about the trends in the incidence of dental caries among school children(a) in Bolton and (b) nationally since 1979. [12470]
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§ Mr. MaloneThe British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry conducts annual surveys of dental caries prevalence in children within a four-yearly cycle comprising those aged five, 12 and 14, throughout Great Britain. BASCD began these surveys in 1985–86 in England and Wales. The tables show the mean number decayed, missing and filled in the deciduous teeth only of five-year-old children, in the permanent teeth only of 12 and 14-year-old children in Bolton, and the figures for five, 12 and 14-year-olds in England.
Mean number of decayed, missing and filled teeth of five-year-olds1 in Bolton and England since 1987–98.
Bolton England 1987–88 2.67 1.73 1989–90 2.82 1.62 1991–92 3.52 1.66 1993–94 3.36 1.74 1 Deciduous teeth only.
Mean number of DMFT of 12-year-olds1 in Bolton and England since 1988–89 Bolton England 1988–89 2.03 1.49 1992–93 2.18 1.15 1 Permanent teeth only.
Mean number of DMFT of 14-year-olds1 in Bolton and England since 1986–87 Bolton England 1986–87 3.79 n/a 1990–91 n/a 2.14 1994–95 2.52 1.67 1 Permanent teeth only. n/a = no data available.
§ Mr. PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the largest national health service payment to a single dentist in 1995–96 working alone. [13158]
§ Mr. MaloneThe largest gross fee payment in 1995–96 to a national health service dentist who had no other dentists working for him was £546,000.