Dentists accused of failing to tell patients of NHS entitlements The Office of Fair Trading says the dental industry does not always work in the best interests of patients. Dentists may be deliberately misleading their patients about their NHS entitlements to prompt them to pay for private treatment, according to a report by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). Half a million patients a year may have unnecessarily paid to receive private dental care after receiving inaccurate advice from their dentist, the watchdog warns. Its report accused the dental industry of not always working in the best interests of patients, who were said to be receiving insufficient information to make informed choices of dentists and treatments. Calling for major changes to the dentistry market, the OFT also raised concerns about restrictions that prevented patients from directly accessing other dental care professionals, such as hygienists, without a referral from a dentist. John Fingleton, the OFT's chief executive, said: "All too often patients lack access to the information they need, for example when choosing a dentist or when getting dental treatment. This study has also highlighted that the current NHS dental contract in England may well not be working in the best interests of patients, and that regulations unjustifiably restrict patients from getting direct access to dental care professionals like hygienists. The OFT's report said that the structure of NHS dental contracts in England made it difficult for new dental practices to be established and prevented the expansion of successful practices offering a high quality of service to NHS patients. The watchdog, which enforces consumer protection law and competition law, also expressed concern about the complexity of the complaints process for patients and instances of dentists pressuring patients to buy dental payment plans. The British Dental Association (BDA) has since agreed to develop a robust and effective code of practice covering the sale of such plans. Dr Susie Sanderson, chair of the BDA's executive board, accused the OFT of taking a "headline-grabbing approach" to publicising the report and of focusing on a very small number of cases where it believed it had identified problems. Research by bodies including the regulator of dentistry, the General Dental Council, confirms that the vast majority of patients are happy with the care they receive. The OFT's own research also confirms this to be the case," she said. This report treats dentistry purely as a market, and dental care as a commodity. In doing so, it has taken a simplistic view of dental care that fails to take into account the huge sums of money dentists invest in surgeries and ignores the unique role in screening and diagnosis that dentists are trained to perform. Lord Howe, the junior minister with responsibility for quality in the health service, said: "We welcome this study which has found that the vast majority of patients are happy with their dental treatment, and that the vast majority of dentists behave ethically. However, denying patients care on the basis of misinformation is a very serious matter. Any dentist that does this risks breaching their contract and we would expect the local NHS to take action. He added elements needed to design a new dental contract were currently being piloted. Nigel Carter, chief executive of the British Dental Health Foundation, said that the charity welcomed the report but claimed that some of the findings are flawed and out of date. "The Steele Review, which was commissioned by the last government, has already addressed the concerns raised around the 2006 NHS contracts and a replacement proposal is already being piloted," he said. The results of this will be used to help shape the future of the way NHS dentistry is delivered. The recommendation for the GDC [General Dental Council] to require that private practices display a pricing structure is irrelevant. A dentist should provide a patient with a treatment plan, and as each patient's plan is different, fixed pricing will lead to confusion and the possibility of disappointed patient expectations.