Dentists may be deliberately misleading their patients about their NHS entitlements to prompt them to pay for private care, a watchdog has said

Half a million patients a year may have unnecessarily paid to receive private dental treatment after receiving inaccurate information from their dentist about health service entitlements, an Office of Fair Trading (OFT) study found.

Patients are given insufficient

information to make informed decisions about their choice of dentists and the treatments they receive, and the dental industry is not always working in their best interest, the report said. The OFT, which enforces consumer protection law and competition law, has called for major changes to the dentistry market in the UK after the study also raised concerns about restrictions preventing patients from directly accessing dental care professionals, such as hygienists, without a referral from a dentist. These restrictions are unjustified and likely to reduce patient choice and dampen competition, the OFT said....Read more here: Dentists 'mislead' patients over free NHS care