There are various problems associated withan open market, which would :: Economics

There are various enigmas associated withan open market, which would remove the NHS status of some alveolar patients andencouraging patients to take dental insurance. This would essentially fastenmany patients to seek private dental care. There are n...There are various problems associated with an open market, which wouldremove the NHS status of some dental patients and encouraging patientsto take dental insurance. This would essentially compel many patientsto seek private dental care. There are numerous problems with theprivate dental sector, which include the lack of competition in themarket. At the moment, on that point is a wide variation in cost for seeminglycomparable services in a market, indicating that charges levied arenot governed by the scathes charged by other suppliers or by the costsof doing business, and therefore it can be concluded that the marketis not subject to effective competition. This is a major problem forpatients, as they are often overcharged for ora l care, which could bereduced by effective competition between private dentists.Secondly, there is a lack of price transparency in the private dentalmarket. Price transparency is essential to enable consumers to makerational choices between dentists and types of treatment on offer. It is a necessity for effective competition.either between private dentists or between NHS and private treatments.There is a need for further investigation into the availability ofprice training for private dental treatment. A Warwickshire TradingStandards Service (WTSS) survey found that only two out of 20 dentalpractices provided a list of prices that was do available to privatepatients. The relevant authorities must address this problem, in orderto allow patients to have a comprehensible choice between dentists.A further problem with the private dental sector is a failure of newentry to the market for private dental provision, which could bringdown prices. In many markets new entry imposes a competit ive restrainton the behaviour of suppliers. However, in the private dental sector,the entry of new high lane dental chains and the fact that this hasnot resulted in a reduction of charges or greater price transparencyin private dentistry. While there has been some new entry into thesector, this has been at a time of growth in the demand for privatedental treatment, which is, at least in part, think to thedifficulty in some areas of the country in obtaining NHS treatment.There has also been some growth in demand for cosmetic dentistry (suchas tooth whitening) and this forms a larger part of the work of somedental chains than general dentistry. Such chains may not therefore be