More Taysiders not with an NHS dentist

The oral hygiene of the region has come under scrutiny again after figures revealed the area is one of the worst in Scotland for people not being registered with a health board dentist.

New statistics released by the Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland show that only the Western Isles has a l ower rate of dentist registrations.

In Tayside, 88.7% of the population is registered compared to the national average of 94.1%.

Marion Duthie, owner of the Duthie Dental Practice in Lochee, has been a dentist in Dundee for 28 years.

She said there could be a number of reasons for the rate in Tayside being low.

Ms Duthie said: “Sometimes NHS patient rates are low because there are a lot of private dentists area.

“But I can’t think of one practice in the whole of Tayside that only accepts private patients so I don’t think that’s the explanation.

“Deprivation may be an issue but people on benefits get free dental treatment.

“It tends to be people just outside the welfare system who struggle a bit more or don’t get the more expensive treatments but that wouldn’t affect the percentages.

“Our patient figures are actually up this year and we have more people registered. in the

“It could be either that the population has risen or that people have simply stopped going to the dentist.”

Ms Duthie also urged people to re-register, regardless of how long it had been since they last went to the dentist.

She said: “We would always urge people to get registered with a dentist. We are accepting new patients.

“It is very rare these days that someone can’t get registered in their local area.

“If you phoned most practices they would tell you they were taking on new patients.

“We now have ground floor access and have found we are getting a number of older patients back we hadn’t seen in a while.

“We aren’t interested in how long it’s been since someone has been to the dentist.

“It’s all about caring for them and treating them.”

MORE than one in 10 people in Tayside are not registered with an NHS dentist.

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Marion Duthie