Dentistry in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom (UK), dental care is administered as part of the National Health Service, a government system involving tax-based funding,country-wide standards, and some centralized management. Actual dental care is a hybrid of public (60%) and private (40%) reimbursement, contracts and fee-for-service payment schemes, often multiple streams for the same patient. This blend of governmental and capitalistic forces has undergone constant adjustment and has demonstrated general improvement in oral health and patient satisfaction in recentyears. The complexity of the system makesitvulnerable to dentists gaming reimbursement opportunities and patients being uncertain about options and quality of care received. It is projected that as attention shifts from services provided to oral health outcomes, there will be more attention to local variations in need, greater use of therapists, and increasing emphasis on prevention