Caries control in health service practice.

It is suggested that it makes sense for dentists providing care for individual patients to take account of caries risk (as assessed by presentation of active, non-cavitated lesions) when deciding how to allocate time and effort of themselves and their staff. However, there is a question as to how realistic it is to ask the dental team to provide a full diagnostic assessment and all the preventive treatment required for a patient for the payment provided by 1 UDA. It is to be hoped that one or more of the Steele pilots will come up with a practical solution for controlling caries in NHS practice.