NHS dental charges (in England) will rise from April 1, 2015 as follows per course of treatment:

• Band 1 from £18.50 to £18.80
• Band 2 from £50.50 to £51.30
• Band 3 from £219 to £222.50

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The Government has accepted the Doctors' and Dentists' Pay Review Body (DDRB) recommendations for a one per cent increase in GDPs’ pay, which will mean an increase in contract values in England of 1.34%. In Scotland there will be a 1.6% increase in fees. The BDA has criticised the DDRB award for its ‘approach and conclusions’. John Milne, outgoing GDPC Chairman said: “We are living in an era of pay restraint, but restraint should not mean pay cuts.”

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Read more: Contract values to rise by 1.34% in April

The Commons Health Committee grilled the GDC Chair and the chief executive for two hours on their performance over recent years. Although the questions were searching, the GDC team appeared to be in total denial that they were in the wrong. The Committee, however, did not seem impressed.

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GDPUK members have contributed most of the costs incurred by a Scottish dentist who abandoned a defamation case against a patient, but had to pay the latter’s legal expenses of £10,500. Dentist Keith Watson had lodged the defamation action against Andrew McIntosh, relating to claims that led to him being exonerated by the GDC . When Mr Watson abandoned the case the court ordered him to pay £10,050 in expenses to Mr McIntosh.

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John Drummond, a former president of the British Dental Association, wrote in a letter to the BDJ that it was ‘desperate; that 10% of recently qualified dentists cannot get jobs. He said that in Scotland are heading for significant unemployment and underemployment and opening a new dental school in Aberdeen ‘has simply compounded the problem.’

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Read more: Drummond speaks out about oversupply of dentists