National evaluation of personal dental services: The perspective of dentists and professionals complementary to dentistry

Abstract

In 2001, research was carried out to investigate the views of dentists and professionals complementary to dentistry on their experiences as part of the personal dental services pilots. This article outlines the main messages from the survey. Before 1997, NHS general dental services could only be delivered by general dental practitioners via a national contract with a nationally negotiated scale of fees. The NHS (Primary Care) Act 1997 allowed for the voluntary establishment of personal dental services (PDS) pilot schemes to test alternative ways of delivering dental services, in particular general dental services, through local contracting arrangements. In the PDS scheme, the contract for dental services was agreed between the commissioners (health authority or primary care trust) and one or more providers of dental services. Since then, the involvement of professionals complementary to dentistry (PCDs) has become an increasingly important issue. This investigation seeks to shed some light on the effectiveness of attempts to integrate the dental team and improve the contribution made by PCDs.