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Information technology and dentistry
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Last modified date:29 January 2008
IT system developers have been supplying and supporting systems to dental practices for over fifteen years. The focus of these systems has been essentially on electronic clinical records, practice management and prior to April 2006, the transmission of fee claims to the Dental Practice Board.
Of approximately 9,000 dental practices, over 6,000 practices (14,500 dentists) transmit data electronically to the Dental Practice Division of the Business Services Authority over an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) link. Dental Systems are normally procured by dentists themselves The major problem with the current situation is that at a clinical level each dental practice system exists in total isolation. The key aim is to have all NHS dental practices computerised and linked to the rest of the NHS through broadband.
The Department is working closely with NHS Connecting for Health, to pilot integration of dentistry within the National Programme for IT with a view to enabling dental practices and community clinics to benefit from:
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NHS dental services
Reforms introduced in April 2006 are designed to help provide better access to dental services and simplify the system of patient charges.
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