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The dental services budget for each of the years in question is provided in the table below and is also published on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/Finance/18127/Documents.

 

Year	Budget £000s
2007-08	354,400
2008-09	354,300
2009-10	355,500
2010-11	343,200
2011-12	396,600
2012-13	398,700
2013-14	398,700

 

Note: This figure is made up of the General Dental Services and Oral Health Measures budgets.

This information is not held centrally. The individual Scottish medical schools will have access to this information if contacted directly. A list of the UK’s medical schools can be found on the Medical Schools Council’s website at:

http://www.medschools.ac.uk/Students/UKMedicalSchools/MedicalSchoolsbyRegion/Pages/Scotland.aspx.

As autonomous institutions, universities are responsible for setting their own course provision and managing their own staff levels. This is therefore not a matter for Scottish Ministers.

Universities are autonomous institutions with responsibility for managing their own staff. This is therefore not a matter for Scottish Ministers.

The monthly capitation payment that dentists receive for each child aged 6 to 12 registered with them under NHS general dental services requires them to provide oral hygiene advice, toothbrushing advice, dietary advice and all clinical prevention.

Dental services are provided to older people who live in care homes as follows:

For an older person registered with a dentist under NHS arrangements who subsequently becomes resident in a care home, the dentist can continue to provide dental care for their patient in the home.

Care homes can have arrangements with a local dental practice to provide dental care for their residents who are not currently registered with a dentist under NHS arrangements.

If the level of care required by the patient is beyond what the dentist can provide on a domiciliary basis then the patient can be referred to the salaried primary care dental service.

In areas where there are no dentists available to provide routine treatment for care home residents, then the salaried primary care dental service can provide cover for the residents.

Funding for the Childsmile programme in 2013-14 is £14,956,000

Childsmile is aimed at every child in Scotland through Childsmile Core and Childsmile Practice from birth until age five years.

Children living in our most deprived communities will receive additional benefit from Childsmile Nursery and Childsmile School at least up to Primary 4.

The Scottish Government mapped the location of dental practices in Scotland as part of a review carried out in 2010. The review “An Analysis of the Dental Workforce in Scotland” can be found at:

http://www.nes.scot.nhs.uk/media/279142/analysis_of_dental_workforce_in_scotland_strategic_review_2010.pdf

This measured on a national basis the average travelling distances to practices rather than concentration of practitioners. This showed that people living in the most deprived areas were amongst the groups with greater access but more detailed information would be analysed at health board level, where responsibility for the overall provision rests of NHS general dental services in an area.

It is for boards to identify any gaps in provision and determine the best solutions to meet local needs. To help boards improve access to general dental services in their area, the Scottish Government has made available a range of measures, including the Scottish Dental Access Initiative.

Continuous registration with a dentist under NHS arrangements was introduced in 2010. Continuous registration means that patients have an ongoing relationship with their dentist and can access regular dental examinations (the dental “check-up’’), which will help pick up any signs of concern early.

Early detection of cancer is a feature of the free NHS dental examination. The fee payable to practitioners for “check-ups’’ is for a clinical examination which we expect to include all oral tissues, i.e. the soft tissue as well as teeth.

The Oral Health Assessment and Review (although not specifically developed to detect cancer early) was developed by the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme in 2011 in order to facilitate the move from a restorative approach to patient care to a preventive and long-term approach that is risk-based and meets the specific needs of individual patients. We have asked NHS Education for Scotland (NES) to use the Oral Health Assessment and Review as the basis of a national audit for dentists to review their current practice.