Excessive Bureaucracy Stifling Dental Practice

British Dental Association, Northern Ireland has recently announced that it is calling for "the withdrawal of the legislation which extends the role of the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) to dental practice."

The association is inducing dental professionals to "contact (their) newly-elected Members of the Legislative Assembly requesting (they) petition the Minister and urge him to withdraw the current legislation."

BDA Warns that Deferring Dental Treatment Unwise

In accordance with a research made by the British Dental Association (BDA), nowadays English patients are pushed to cancel dental appointments and put off treatments they need because of the concerns about the economic climate. This unfortunate strong influence of these decisions leads to an increased number of patients presenting at surgeries requiring emergency treatment.

A research performed by the British Dental Association found that 59% of asked dentists had seen their patients cancel appointments, at the time when 68% reported that their patients defer treatment. Taking into account this stat, there is no surprise that more than one third of practitioners mentioned that they had seen "an increased demand for emergency treatment during the past year."

Chair of the BDA's Executive Board, Dr Susie Sanderson, stated that:

Orthodontic Treatment Changes Must Be Explained to the Public

The British Dental Association (BDA) stated that "changes to the future provision of Health Service orthodontic treatment have to be fully explained to patients waiting for care". In order to decide which cases should be funded by the Health Service, the General Dental Services will see the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN). The new regulations will stipulate that Health Service orthodontic treatment will be restricted to patients who score 3.6 or more on the IOTN scale.

Peter Crooks, Chair of the BDA Northern Ireland Dental Practice Committee, stated that: