Dental Services

NHS general dental services are provided by general dental practitioners, under a national contract between themselves and the NHS Boards.

General dental practitioners are independent contractors. They are free to choose whether to join a NHS Board's dental list and whether to provide NHS dental treatment to each individual patient.

They are also at liberty to withdraw from a dental list. They can stop providing NHS dental treatment altogether or withdraw from individual arrangements with patients, provided they give 3 months notice of their intention to do so.

It is important to note that a dentist is not obliged to accept a new patient as a NHS patient, even if they are on a NHS Board list.

Practitioner Services' (Dental) Role

We pay dentists, on behalf of the NHS Boards, for the NHS work they carry out.

We also monitor and verify payments made to dental practices. This is part of the routine audit process of NHS Boards, to make sure public money is being spent appropriately.

This includes checking a number of patients, at random, to ensure treatment carried out was necessary and completed to a satisfactory standard. These checks are carried out by the Scottish Dental Reference Service. By carrying out these checks, we are able to provide a quality-assurance service to people receiving NHS dental treatment.