Treatment Warning For Patients Who Do not Look After Dental Health

Mon, 25 Oct 2010

People who neglect their oral health by failing to brush their teeth properly or limiting sugary snacks and drinks should not be allowed to receive expensive dental treatment on the NHS, a government adviser has recommended.

Prof Jimmy Steele, Professor and Head of the School of Oral Health Services Research at Newcastle University, said the NHS was wasting money providing expensive and complex treatments such as crowns and root canal surgery to patients who constantly fail to improve their dental health .

Speaking to the Sunday Time, he said: "If the delay persists again and again, we should be questioning whether we should be crowning the teeth as they will just rot around the edges."

"The patient has the responsibility to abide by the recall intervals advised by the dentist and to take reasonable steps to look after their own health," he added.

"Providing such time-consuming, technically demanding care can be a good investment where it will be valued by and provide benefit for the patient and survive the rigours of the mouth."

"Providing such care where risk of not managed, is a waste of personal and public money."

Prof Steele is currently working on a review of the NHS dentistry contract.
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