IN his article "Teething Troubles" (October 28) Stephen Lewis told of his problems with NHS dentistry and of differences in the quality of NHS and private treatment. His difficulty in obtaining a prompt appointment was probably due to a surgery full of people in for their six-monthly checkups.
Why dentists persist in this one interval-fits-all treatment cycle in an age of greatly improved oral hygiene is something of a mystery. Maybe it enables dentists to generate additional income thus making up for the low level of subsidy received from the government.
NHS dentistry, while being part of the Health Service, has been very much semi-detached from its inception and though more money is now being pumped into the health service, dentistry looks like continuing to be under funded.
With so many dentists leaving the NHS for the greener pastures of private practice, Mr Lewis therefore may well find that in future his only choice will be to go private.
Whether he will also find himself paying substantially more whilst still finding a waiting room full of patients in for six-monthly check-ups, well then that's possibly the subject of another article.
Richard Lamb,
Greystoke Road, York.
Updated: 09:45 Saturday, November 02, 2002
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