MAJORITY REPORT. 
155 
TCA 
only of the cost, but of the scope and administrative arrangements 
of such a service. 
CoST OF A STATUTORY DENTAL BENEFIT. 
350. The cost of providing a dental service for all insured per- 
sons cannot we are told be determined with any precision because 
of the impossibility of estimating accurately the number of 
persons who might apply for treatment. It is generally agreed 
that the dental condition of the industrial classes is deplorable. 
The proportion of insured persons needing some form of dental 
treatment is put at from 60 per cent. to 80 per cent. of the total. 
The precise figure, however, is not material, even if it were 
exactly ascertainable, since the important point in framing any 
estimate is not the number of persons who need treatment, but 
the number who would be likely to seek it. This must be a 
matter of conjecture, but it is material to note that the demands 
on Approved Societies which have provided dental treatment as 
an additional benefit have shown a marked and continuous in- 
crease. With an unrestricted dental service, open to all insured 
persons without any contribution being réquired from patients, 
it would, we are told, not be safe to calculate on less than 5 per 
cent. of the total insured population applying for treatment in a 
year. We understand that the percentage of members eligible 
for the existing Dental Benefit who apply for treatment is about 
4 per cent., but allowance must be made for those who are 
deterred from applying by the knowledge that they will have to 
bear part of the cost. In the case of the United Women’s 
Insurance Society the proportion of applicants has been as high 
as 9 per cent., a figure which is significant in view of the long 
experience of this Society in the provision of dental treatment. 
(App. XXIV, 22-51) 
_ 351. The other item in estimating the cost of a dental service 
18 the cost per case treated. It is clear that the majority of 
persons now applying for treatment need dentures, and until the 
present arrears have been worked off, which would take some 
years, the proportion of denture cases is bound to be very large. 
The inevitable result is that the cost per case treated is high. 
In the initial period it would not be safe to estimate the average 
Cost per case at less than £4, and it might prove to be nearer £5, 
on the basis of the present scale of the Public Dental Service 
Association. Tt is possible, though by no means certain, that 
Some saving might be effected by the adoption of a system of 
femuneration based upon the time given to the work in preference 
to one based on a scale of fees for services rendered. 
_ 352. Accepting for the moment the estimate of 5 per cent. of 
Msured persons applying for treatment in each year at an average 
Cost of £4 per case, estimates which are probably on the low 
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