DT News - UK - Dentists with greater financial incentive take more radiographs

Dental Tribune UK

Wed. 14 February 2018

save

YORK, UK: Radiographs are useful in diagnostics, but they expose patients to potentially harmful radiation. Thus, with every radiograph they take, dentists are advised to carefully calculate the benefits versus the risks for the patient. Research conducted by the University of York has now found that dentists are more likely to request or take radiographs when they are paid for each radiograph taken, even when it is not clinically necessary to do so.

When patients were exempt from charges, the number of radiographs also went up significantly. Fewer radiographs were taken, however, when dentists were on a fixed salary, according to the paper published in the latest Journal of Health Economics.

The extensive analysis at the University of York’s Centre for Health Economics looked at data from Scotland on NHS dentists who were either salaried or received fee-for-service payments and their patients over a ten-year period. Over one million treatments were included in the study. It confirmed earlier but limited research on the effects that different reimbursement schemes for dentists can have on the intensity of treatment and prevalence of check-ups.

“Our results indicate that a dentist’s reimbursement method induces a significant impact on X-ray use, with dentists who are paid a separate fee for each X-ray providing more X-rays,” the researchers state in their paper.

Although they encourage further research, they said that the findings could already have significant impact on public health policy, particularly in regard to protecting patients from overexposure to radiation from radiographs.

“Even if patients may voluntarily opt to receive a lower level of X-raying than would be optimal from a risk–benefit perspective, it nevertheless seems ethically questionable that the amount of X-rays received by patients who are exempt from treatment charges is significantly higher if the provider is paid fee-for-service than if (s)he is paid salary,” they concluded. “This either means that patients treated by salaried dentists receive less X-rays than optimal for their oral health or that exempt patients treated by fee-for-service dentists receive too many X-rays.”

The study, titled “First do no harm—The impact of financial incentives on dental X-rays”, was published in the March 2018 issue of the Journal of Health Economic.

To post a reply please login or register

NHS dentists exempt from CQC’s new financial viability requirement

LONDON, UK: Practices and organisations operating under NHS contracts are not required to submit a statement of financial viability to the Care Quality ...

UK dentists need urgent financial support—BDA asks for help

BELFAST, UK: Dentists in Northern Ireland and Scotland are struggling. Several pleas to ministers for financial support for private and mixed dental ...

More English adults see NHS dentists

LEEDS, UK: The number of adult and child patients who visit a National Health Service (NHS) dentist is rising, but only the North of England has recorded an...

Cornwall Council votes to take action on dentist shortage

CORNWALL, UK: A cross-party group of councillors in Cornwall have voted to take action over the growing access and recruitment problems facing NHS dental ...

Infection scare dentist taken off register

LONDON, UK: The General Dental Council (GDC) has struck off a Nottingham dentist responsible for the largest recall of patients in the history of the NHS ...

More dentists see no future for their profession

BIRMINGHAM, UK: Recent changes to the dental care system seem to have taken their toll on dentists’ expectations for the future of their profession. ...

Eight in ten parents fail to take children to dentist

WINCHESTER, UK: A new survey of more than 3,000 adults in the UK has found that almost 80 per cent of parents in the country only took their children to the...

US dentists prescribe 37 times more opioids than English dentists do, study finds

CHICAGO, U.S.: With the overprescription of opioids causing many severe health and addiction issues in the U.S., it is imperative that dental professionals ...

British patients more satisfied with NHS dental services

LONDON – The improved access to NHS dental care appears to be reflected in British people’s opinion about dental services. While public ...

Dentist reported to police for using drone to take care of patient

WOMBOURNE, UK: In times of SARS-CoV-2, dentists are taking unusual measures to ensure that their patients receive medical care despite contact restrictions ...

Education

Live webinar
Fri. 26 April 2024
5:00 pm UTC (London)