The words to use
- Unit of dental activity (UDA)
- The payment currency of England's NHS dental contract. Practices earn UDAs for each course of treatment by band, against a yearly target.
- Patients seen
- The official access measure: adults treated on the NHS in the previous 24 months and children in the previous 12, matching NICE recall intervals.
- Dental desert
- An informal term for an area where it is very hard to find a practice offering NHS appointments, often rural or coastal.
- Inverse care law
- The pattern in which good care is least available to the people who need it most.
- Integrated care board (ICB)
- The local NHS body in England that commissions NHS dental services and was set targets for extra urgent appointments.
