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Welcome to Manchester Local Dental Committee website

The Manchester Local Dental Committee is a statutory body of General Dental Surgeons who practice in Manchester. They are representative of both NHS and private practice and have the aim of promoting better oral health for the population they treat.

We provide expert help and advice to the Primary Care Trust by having members sit on their Professional Executive Committee  and by furnishing attendees for the Oral Health Advisory Group of the PCT. We attend national meetings and attempt to put the Manchester view across at all levels of health care planning.

We liaise and work with the health scrutiny committee of the Manchester city council and work closely with the patient and public involvement forum to offer clinical and regulatory advice to help them help patients when things go wrong.

NHS Dentistry has suffered for a long time under all shades of government and is chronically under funded to deliver healthcare in the 21st century. We have seen a decrease in the availability to obtain NHS care recently since the inception of the new contract for general dental practitioners. We have about 20% fewer whole time NHS dentists than we did before the inception of the new contract. No patient is registered with a particular practice now under the new arrangements and there is no element of continuing care. This is a subtle difference from the previous arrangements and technically leaves a patient without a family dentist once their course of treatment is finished. Your ability to obtain care when you are next due is entirely dependant on the practices capacity at that time to offer NHS treatment to any patient – if the practice has done its quota then you may not be seen until the next quota of care is released in the following financial year.

The new arrangements brought with it new patient charge bands which are proving to be not well understood by the patients since you will be charged the same fee for 1 filling as you would for 10 fillings. The same is true for all treatment. 1 crown the same as multiple crowns, a single denture the same as upper and lower dentures together because you now pay for the course of treatment not the items of treatment contained within the course. This swings and roundabout approach favours those patients who neglect their teeth at the expense of those patient who care for their teeth.

Leaflets are available to explain the complexities of the new system from you dentist or the PCT.

We have put some link on the site to sign post you for common issues regarding dentistry.

John Latham
Secretary Manchester LDC

The Manchester Local
Dental Mission Statement:

The LDC is a communication tool to facilitate information transfer amongst the profession.  It’s aims are to:

To canvas advice and opinion and utilise this to represent General Dental Practitioners in liaisons with other bodies and groups relevant to the dental profession.

From liaisons with such groups to provide General Dental Practitioners with the most recent information pertinent to their profession.

Provided a forum for support and guidance for General Dental Practitioners.

We aim therefore to be a bridge between government and general dental practitioners.  This we hope will improve the knowledge and performance of dentists that will provide a better service for their patients.