Scottish dentists' preferences for remuneration and their opinions on the scope of General Dental Service treatment.

A questionnaire was sent to a list of what was considered to be all dentists currently in practice in the General Dental Service (GDS) and Community Dental Service (CDS) in Scotland; 72% responded. The dentists were asked to indicate the general method by which they would prefer to be paid, given a choice of fee for item-of-service, salary or capitation. Opinion was split among the GDS respondents, between fee for item-of-service (34.9%), a salaried system of payment (32.6%), or a service based on differing remuneration systems for the dental care of adults and children (22.5%). Only 22.6% of GDS respondents said they would prefer a capitation system for the treatment of child patients. Most CDS respondents said they preferred to be salaried. Dentists in both services were asked if they felt there was a need to extend the range of treatment items which are currently permitted in the GDS; most felt that there was. About 80% of all respondents felt that there was a need to allow payment for various items of preventive dental care within the GDS. Almost a third of GDS respondents also mentioned various items of restorative dental treatment which they felt should be funded (a concern which fewer CDS respondents (6.7%) mentioned). Few respondents suggested any other additional types of treatment items.