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Workforce Planning for Dentistry in Scotland:
A Strategic Review: Interim Report and Recommendations

ANNEX B
THE ROLE OF THE COMMUNITY DENTAL SERVICE

It is desirable that the General Dental Practitioner is the lynch-pin of family dental care, however the Community Dental Service role is to provide a safety net service where this prospect is not feasible. In practice this means children or adults who cannot or would not seek to obtain treatment from a GDP. This would include serving all priority groups, people with special needs, anxious patients, patients requiring sedation or general anaesthesia and patients who are restricted to their own homes.

Adults and children who live in rural areas where access prevents a visit to a GDP, adults and children with special needs, for example the frail and elderly, those with mental illness or learning difficulties and those living in areas of social deprivation also rely on the provision of dental care by the Community Dental Service.

The Community Dental Service works with a range of organisations including the Health Board, the Education Department and other disciplines to provide a multi-disciplinary approach to oral health promotion. The Community Dental Service works with the Health Board and other bodies to monitor oral health throughout life via screening programmes and providing epidemiological fieldwork.

The numbers of dentists working in the CDS in Scotland has been decreasing over the past decade as illustrated below (Source: ISD Scottish Health Statistics 1999).

Numbers of dentists (Whole Time Equivalent) in the Community Dental Service from 1975 to 1998

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