Provision of domiciliary dental care for the older person by general dental practitioners in Scotland.

The databank at the Scottish Dental Practice Board (SDPB) was explored to determine the domiciliary care provided, for those patients over 70 years of age, by general dental practitioners under the National Health Service in one year. Three thousand nine hundred and forty-three (3943) courses of treatment were provided, via domiciliary visits to patients in this age category, by 38 per cent (1012) of dentists registered to provide dental care under the National Health Service. Whereas 34 per cent of dentists under 40 years of age provided domiciliary care, 46 per cent of those over 40 years provided such a service (P less than 0.001). In Scotland, approximately 1 per cent of 70-79-year-old patients and 2 per cent of patients over 80 years received domiciliary dental care over a 1-year period. For those elderly people who received such care, the mean percentage doubled for every 5-year increase in patient age.