Cost implications

A survey* by leading health care cash plan provider Sovereign Health Care has revealed that 43 per cent of adults in the UK have skipped routine or necessary dentist or optician visits in the last 12 months for fear of how much their bill for treatment could be.

Worries about money (20 per cent), increased living costs, including food and utility bills (18 per cent) and reduction in income due to job loss or cuts in benefits (13 per cent) are the top reasons for putting off vital treatment.

Seven per cent of those surveyed said they’d neglected visiting the dentist because they are not currently registered with one or are on an NHS waiting list.

People living in Leicester are the biggest dentist-dodgers (38 per cent) followed by Chelmsford (37 per cent), Oxford (36 per cent), Worcester and Aberystwyth (34 per cent). Norwich was the most conscientious city when it came to keeping up with oral health with only 10 per cent avoiding the dentist’s chair closely followed by York (12 per cent).