Public knowledge of dental registration and management of common dental problems

The government has recently changed its policy on dental registration. There is now a requirement to attend a dentist within 15 months of the previous appointment or dental registration will lapse. The authors of this article undertook a survey of the patients attending for dental treatment at the accident and emergency department of their hospital to ascertain whether inappropriate attendance was due to ignorance about general dental services. Of the 501 respondents 14% had not seen their general dental practitioner within the last 15 months and were therefore no longer registered--only 21% realized that they had to keep regular appointments or dental registration would lapse. A proportion (30%) had tried to contact the dentist outside normal working hours; 27% of these were unhappy with the outcome. Telephone calls were unanswered in 38% of those expressing dissatisfaction and 45% subsequently attended hospital for treatment.