How to Register

To receive dental treatment under the National Health Service you need to be registered with a dentist who provides NHS treatment. All NHS dentists have leaflets explaining their services.

You can ask any dentist to accept you as an NHS patient. However, not all dentists accept new patients and they have the right to choose whether or not to accept you. NHS Tayside cannot assign you to a dentist, you must find one for yourself.

Registration lasts for 15 months. You are advised to attend for regular check-ups, to ensure that you remain on the dentist's list. However, if you miss appointments, attend late or fail to pay for treatment, the dentist can have you removed from his list.

Records

When you register with a new dentist, he or she will start a new record for you – your dental records do not follow you from dentist to dentist. You can ask the dentist with whom you were previously registered to provide a summary of your treatment, which you can pass to your new dentist. There is a charge for this.

Dental Charges

If you are not eligible for free treatment or help with charges then, as an NHS patient, you pay 80% of the cost of the treatment, up to a maximum charge which is set every year by the government. All treatment provided and subsequent claims made are monitored by the Scottish Dental Practice Board.

When the dentist first examines you, he or she will give you a treatment plan which will explain the treatment you require and an estimate of the cost. (Sometimes when the dentist starts working on teeth, he or she will find that the treatment plan needs to be changed, so he or she cannot give you an exact cost at the start). You will be asked to sign a form declaring that you are agreeable to undertake the proposed course of treatment and that you promise to pay the appropriate charge. You may be asked to pay the full amount before the treatment is started.

Dentist may charge for missed appointments. There is no set fee for this, but the usual charge is between £5 -£20.

Information on whether or not you, may be entitled to receive free dental treatment or help with the cost is contained in leaflet HC11, copies of which are available from: -

Dental Practices
Family Doctors
Pharmacies
Ophthalmic Practices
NHS Hospitals

Repair or replacement

If you continue to be registered with the same dentist, should a filling, root filling, inlay, pin lay or crown need to be repaired or replaced as a result of its failing within 12 months, you will not be charged for this work. However, you will be charged if your dentist decides that a different type of treatment is required because a satisfactory repair or replacement cannot be made.

Emergency care

If you are not registered with a dentist, you are free to contact any dentist and ask for an urgent appointment, but the dentist does not have to give you one.

The Dental Hospital, 2 Park Place, Dundee, (01382 635971) will provide emergency treatment from 8.45 -3pm on weekdays, but you must arrive before 2pm to be guaranteed to be seen.

There is an appointment only weekend dental emergency service at the Dental Clinic at Drumhar Centre in Perth.

This service operates between 9.00am and 12noon on Saturday and Sunday’s.  This is not a walk in clinic.  Appointments are allocated by the emergency dental triage service.  In the first instance registered patients should phone their own dental practice and non-registered patients should phone 01738 564261 for further information.

Your responsibilities as an NHS patient

You should arrive for appointments on time.

If you are unable to attend or have to cancel an appointment, let your dentist know and try to give at least 24 hours' notice.

You should pay for any treatment promptly.