Policymakers are failing to consider the role of oral health in the wider health system, according to the BDA.
The British Dental Association (BDA) made the warning to the Health Committee recently, pointing out that the decline in funding is unsustainable and that there is insufficient clarity on what patients and practitioners can expect from NHS dentistry.
‘Sound oral health rests on effective primary care,’ Mick Armstrong, chair of the BDA, said.
‘If the Government gets it right it can do right by patients and save the health service millions.
‘NHS dentists are currently saddled with red tape and busted regulation.
‘The Government talks prevention, but provides opaque structures and payment systems that actively undermine it.
‘Fixing each of these problems is not rocket science – it just requires policymakers to give oral health the attention it deserves.’
