HEALTH chiefs in York are to be asked to take a fresh look at whether residents are really getting their teeth into vital dental treatment.

City of York Council’s health scrutiny committee is to decide on Monday whether to launch an investigation into the availability of NHS dentistry in the city to discover whether it is meeting demand.

Committee member and Skelton, Rawcliffe and Clifton Without councillor Richard Moore has called for the review amid fears statistics about dental access may not reveal the full story.

He wants any new study to focus on patients’ experiences of dental treatment and the “units of dental activity” (UDA) system, designed to make it easier for people to obtain state-funded tooth care.

Under the scheme, dental practices signed up to contracts where they were expected to complete a certain number of procedures with points allocated for each – allowing them to gain one point for simple examinations and cleaning and a greater number for more extensive work such as fillings and extractions.

Many dentists have been running out of the number of UDAs they have available to treat patients, forcing them to ask people to be treated privately or wait until the next financial year to be seen.

Coun Moore believes the system in York needs to be analysed and its effectiveness assessed. He wants to know whether alternative methods are available to ensure patients receive vital treatment and how big an impact missed appointments have on how it works.

He also wants NHS North Yorkshire and York, the local dental committee and practices, residents and voluntary organisations to be consulted. A report going before Monday’s committee will recommend pressing ahead with the review.

“The statistics often reflect the number of people assigned to a dentist – this does not necessarily mean they are able to access NHS treatment when they need it,” said Coun Moore.

“Listening to local people, it is clear many are not able to access NHS dental services when they need them.

“It is important we assess the effectiveness of dental services from the patients’ point of view, and not just through number-crunching and statistics.”

Recent figures claimed 95,725 new patients visited an NHS dentist in York between March 2006 and September 2008. Between April and June last year, 4,759 York and Selby patients who had not been assigned a dental practice were on the trust’s waiting list.

Comments from NHS North Yorkshire and York included in the report to go before the committee said the organisation “can assist in terms of explaining the processes relating to allocations from the database and provision of ‘units of dental activity’. Our assumption is that any interviews with residents, voluntary sector, dental practices etc…would not be the trust’s responsibility.”