Abstract
A questionnaire was sent to a list of what was considered to be all dentists currently in practice in the General Dental Service (GDS) and Community Dental Service (CDS) in Scotland; 72% responded. The dentists were asked to indicate the general method by which they would prefer to be paid, given a choice of fee for item-of-service, salary or capitation. Opinion was split among the GDS respondents, between fee for item-of-service (34.9%), a salaried system of payment (32.6%), or a service based on differing remuneration systems for the dental care of adults and children (22.5%). Only 22.6% of GDS respondents said they would prefer a capitation system for the treatment of child patients. Most CDS respondents said they preferred to be salaried. Dentists in both services were asked if they felt there was a need to extend the range of treatment items which are currently permitted in the GDS; most felt that there was. About 80% of all respondents felt that there was a need to allow payment for various items of preventive dental care within the GDS. Almost a third of GDS respondents also mentioned various items of restorative dental treatment which they felt should be funded (a concern which fewer CDS respondents (6.7%) mentioned). Few respondents suggested any other additional types of treatment items
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nuttall, N., Pitts, N. Scottish dentists' preferences for remuneration and their opinions on the scope of General Dental Service treatment. Br Dent J 166, 451–454 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.4806883
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.4806883
This article is cited by
-
Provision of prevention to adults in NHS dental practices and attitudes to prevention
British Dental Journal (2006)