A recent British study shows that 78 percent of private dental patients left the National Health Service because their dentist stopped treating NHS patients or they could not find an NHS dentist.

The study was conducted by the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health.

In 2006, the government reformed NHS dentistry in order to increase patients’ access to treatment and simplify payments. But the reform was not the same for the dentists. They objected, complaining that their income reduced. Unlike the other doctors in the NHS, dentists work on a contract basis and can leave if it suites them otherwise. So, after this government reform of NHS, some dentists cut the number of NHS patients or stopped taking them at all.

The survey was conducted on 5,212 patients and 750 dentists in England and it found that 6 percent of the patients have improvised in taking care of their oral hygiene, resorting to superglue or even extracting their own teeth.

20 percent of patients have renounced to apply to a dentist because of the cost. Also, 10 percent of the patients didn’t register to a dentist because they had no NHS dentist near where they lived.

The study also showed that 58 percent of dentists blame the new dental contracts introduced in 2006 for making worse the quality of dental care for NHS patients and 84 percent said the contract had not made it easier for patients to get NHS treatment.

Susie Sanderson, executive board chairwoman of the British Dental Association, a trade union of thousands of dentists said: "This survey underlines the significant problems caused by both dentists and patients by the new dental contract".