Dentists to prioritise urgent care and save some patients more than £200 under plans

Under the current system, which dates back to 2006, dentists are paid for what are called Units of Dental Activity, known as UDAs.

Different procedures – fillings, extractions and more complicated work – are assigned a different number of UDAs.

Dentists who provide NHS care have a contract that says how many UDAs they will carry out each year and are paid accordingly.

But this has meant that more money was available to dentists for carrying out simple check-ups, rather than spending longer with patients who needed more complex, time-consuming care.

For years dentists have been complaining that the contract for NHS work fails to cover the costs of what they’re being asked to carry out.

As a result many dentists have been walking away from NHS work – meaning it’s increasingly hard for people to access care. There are parts of the country where there is simply no access to NHS dentistry.