The online publication Dentistry has come to the defence of UK private dentistry following a survey by Which? of 1,009 private dental patients who had experienced a problem with their treatment in the previous two years, which found that 39% felt costs were excessive, 22% paid more than quoted, and 21% said pricing was unclear upfront.
Pointing out that investigation limited to people who had experienced a problem was likely to give a skewed impression, Dentistry pointed to new official data showing 93.5% of recent private dental patients were in fact satisfied with their care
It added that data published by the Office for National Statistics found that 89.9% of recent NHS dental patients were also satisfied with their care.
The ONS figures were also based on a higher sample: The satisfaction findings were based on 8,098 recent NHS dental patients and 8,336 recent private patients who were asked about dental appointments attended during the previous 28 days.