NHS Dentistry

The NHS uses the Index of Multiple Deprivation as part of a formula for allocating dental services, in what is perhaps a recognition of the relationship between tooth decay and deprivation (here is another post on this). Buried in the technical guide to NHS funding formulae allocations I found this:

The dental services formula uses national average costs by age, sex and IMD of patients’ residence for those accessing NHS dental care. This is multiplied together with the number of NHS patients seen (mapped to Area Team based on which Area Team now holds the dental contracts) in the 2 years to March 2013 by age-sex-IMD group.

How much money does this represent? According to this report from 2012 the NHS spends £3.7 billion on dentistry annually, with it making up 3.5% of all NHS expenditure.