Statistics recently published show a sharp drop in the number of dentists being referred to the National Clinical Assessment Service (NCAS), prompting fears that performance concerns within the profession may be going unnoticed by local managers.

The figures, contained within the 2010/11 Casework Activity Report, show that during the 12-month period to March 2011, there was a reduction of a third in the number of dentists referred to NCAS. Until 2010-2011, there was a steady year on year growth in dentist referrals to NCAS; in 2009-2010, about one dentist in 250 was referred.

NCAS is calling on the NHS to ensure that performance concerns amongst dentists are picked up and acted on as soon as possible to ensure patient care is not compromised.

'We know that most dentists work extremely hard to give an excellent service to their patients, but we also know that there is a small but consistent group who get into difficulty,' commented Professor Alastair Scotland, Director of NCAS.

'Managing dental services at a time of great change in the NHS makes it much harder for local managers to identify performance concerns at an early stage,' said Dr Janine Brooks, Associate Director of Dentistry at NCAS. 'I don't believe the performance of dentists has suddenly got better. I think it is more likely to be that managers do not have time to effectively observe performance-related issues.'