Thursday, 29 October 2026

Good morning.

Yesterday's Budget landed with hundreds of pages to digest.

For dental practices, one of the most immediate numbers is considerably easier:

£13.21 an hour.

Plus, Scotland has just recorded its best child oral health since the national programme began, and 25 randomised trials ask whether digital dentures have actually earned their advantage.

Let's get into it.

THE DRILL

From 1 April 2027, the National Living Wage for workers aged 21+ rises 3.9% to £13.21 an hour.

That's up from £12.71 today and represents an extra £910 in gross annual earnings for a full-time worker on the minimum.

For practice owners, the relevance is obvious.

If members of your dental or reception team sit close to the wage floor, next year's payroll budget has just changed.

Two other Budget lines worth knowing:

Tax-free mileage rates for employees and self-employed people are being made more generous.

And from April 2027, tax rates on savings and property income rise by two percentage points across the bands. The £20,000 cash ISA limit stays.

Nothing there requires a panicked call to your accountant tomorrow morning.

But £13.21 probably belongs somewhere in the 2027 practice forecast.

SCO: 76% of Primary 1 children had no obvious decay experience in 2026.

That's the highest figure since Scotland's National Dental Inspection Programme began in 2003.

Average dmft also fell to a record-low 0.92.

The less comfortable number?

In the most deprived areas, 62.0% were decay-free.

In the least deprived? 87.3%.

So Scotland has managed two things at once:

real population-level progress and a stubborn socioeconomic gap.

Importantly, oral health has improved across every deprivation quintile since 2008, with some of the largest gains occurring in more deprived groups.

A good result.

Just not a finished job.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

A new systematic review combined 25 randomised trials comparing complete dentures made using:

A) Conventional fabrication

B) Milled digital fabrication

C) 3D printing

Which method clearly performed best for patient-important outcomes such as satisfaction, quality of life and complications?

A) Conventional

B) Milled

C) 3D-printed

D) None clearly won

Have a think.

Answer near the bottom.

REGULATORY RADAR

The GDC is rewriting guidance used by decision makers at the two earliest stages of Fitness to Practise.

The consultation closes at 23:59 on Monday, 2 November.

The draft covers areas including sexual misconduct, discrimination, harassment, offensive behaviour, freedom of expression and health.

One important proposal around health:

The focus should be on actual risk, how a condition is being managed and whether it affects safe practice, rather than simply on the fact that a professional has a health condition.

The GDC says previous changes have already cut average Initial Assessment time from 30 weeks to 16.

You don't have to spend your Monday evening responding to a regulatory consultation.

But if you have views on how early FtP decisions should be made, the window is about to close.

BREAK THE ICE

Try:

“I'll show you exactly what I'm seeing. Then I'll separate what needs attention now from what can safely wait.”

Still honest.

Just considerably more useful than making the patient spend the next five minutes wondering whether they're about to lose every tooth.

THE ANSWER

Across 25 randomised trials, conventional, milled and 3D-printed complete dentures showed no clear superiority for patient-important outcomes.

There was one pooled difference: 3D-printed dentures showed a small retention advantage over milled dentures.

But the certainty of that evidence was low.

3D-printed dentures were also associated with more mechanical complications and aftercare, while milled dentures tended to score better for patient-rated aesthetics and processing time.

And most of the evidence overall was very low certainty.

So digital dentures may absolutely win on workflow, repeatability, storage or economics.

The evidence just doesn't currently say:

“Choose this one because patients clinically do better.”

Useful distinction.

THE LAST RINSE

Things only dentists understand:

“Move your jaw to the left for me.”

Patient turns their entire head left.

Close enough.

We'll try again.