NHS dental treatment statistics
Month ending 31 August 2022

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides a monthly update on the number of NHS primary dental claims and selected treatments.

Main points

• The number of examinations paid in August 2022 was 238,838; an increase of 28% compared to July 2022 (186,714).
• There were 327,948 NHS primary dental claims in August 2022. This represents an increase of 25% from 261,537 in July 2022.

Number of NHS primary dental claims, by payment month; Scotland ^1,2,3

A line chart with the month on the x-axis and number of claims on the y-axis. In March 2020, there was an abrupt drop in the number of claims followed by an even larger fall in April. This coincides with the introduction of COVID-19 emergency measures. With the remobilisation of dental care there has been some recovery. Since April 2021, activity has been higher than 2020 levels. Figures have been climbing and June 2022 saw the highest number of claims since before the pandemic.

Close

^{1. The March 2022 payment cycle was brought forward to 30 March; excluding claims which would have otherwise been processed. Claims submitted from 31 March are therefore included in the April 2022 payment cycle, contributing to higher activity levels that month.}

^{2. Note that these figures include triage claims which were not available before June 2020.}

^{3. From 1 April 2022: Dentists were allowed to de-escalate their infection prevention and control measures in line with national guidance to alleviate system pressures and allow an increase in patient throughput.}

Background

Dental claims are submitted by NHS dentists for activity monitoring or to claim payment for treatments and associated fees, such as issuing a prescription or orthodontic interim payments. Each claim may cover a single appointment or multiple appointments depending on the treatment provided.

NHS primary dental services have been affected throughout the course of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. Due to the disruption to service provision, a financial support package was introduced for independent General Dental Service practices and as the service recovers, this is being reviewed.

An important factor influencing monitoring of activity levels has been the introduction of triage activity codes. These new codes were introduced on 22 June 2020 for use initially in Urgent Dental Care Centres (UDCCs) but were also then used across all NHS primary dental services during remobilisation. The codes include treatments such as: telephone advice, issuing prescriptions, undefined aerosol generating procedures (AGPs) and non-AGPs. These triage codes, which previously could not be claimed, may result in additional claims since June 2020.

As the triage codes include undefined AGP and non-AGP procedures, it is not possible to identify what procedures were undertaken unless other treatments are also recorded within the claim. Therefore, figures may undercount the number of treatments.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 8 November 2022.