Registration with a NHS Dentist
General dental practitioners are independent contractors who are free to choose whether to join a NHS Board's dental list and whether to provide NHS dental treatment to each individual patient.
They are also at liberty to withdraw from a dental list, i.e. stop providing NHS dental treatment altogether, or withdraw from individual arrangements with patients provided they give three months notice of their intention to do so.
Currently, a patient must attend their NHS dentist at least once in a 15 month period before their registration lapses - but from April 2006 this period will be extended to 36 months.
Charges for treatment in the NHS
NHS dental patients pay 80 per cent of the total cost of the treatment.
Some examples :
Basic examination | free |
Extensive examination | free |
Simple scale and polish | £10.10 |
Two small X-rays and one small filling from | £11.25 |
One large filling from | £17.60 |
Single simple tooth extraction | £6.29 |
Root filling front tooth | £37.04 |
A full precious metal crown from | £88.46 |
A full set of plastic dentures from | £139.04 |
Please note: the total cost of NHS treatment may be different from these examples because of the number, or complexity of treatment involved.
Full details of charges is available in the Statement of Dental Remuneration.
Some people are exempt from charges. See NHS National Services Scotland for exemption information.