ABSTRACT
Over the years there have been many attempts to establish Dental Health Insurance Schemes but these have not been successful due mainly to the difficulty in establishing the difference between what is clinically necessary and cosmetically desirable. Several schemes, which were somewhat different in nature, were established in 1986, some survived and others failed for a variety of reasons. Denplan boasts that it has about 25% of practising dentists on its lists, and roughly one-third of a million patients. A patient that a general dental practitioner (GDP) is proposing to take on as a Denplan patient will be examined and allocated to a payment category. Denplan collects the monthly payments from the patient's bank account by direct debit and, after deducting its administrative costs, will remit the GDP's share with a schedule of patients on a monthly basis, the payment covers check-ups, consultations, scale and polish and X-rays.
