From Volume 10, Issue 1, January 2017 | Pages 32-36
The orthognathic service in some areas of the UK have come under increased pressure due to financial constraints within the NHS. The authors felt it was timely to investigate the cost to the NHS of orthognathic treatment for patients at a District General Hospital (DGH).
In the UK National Health Service (NHS) orthognathic treatment tends to be carried out within the hospital-based services. In these times of continued austerity, the Government has released procedures which were deemed low priority, one of which was orthognathic surgery for purely aesthetic purposes.
Previous studies have shown orthognathic surgery to provide good outcomes for a relatively low cost,1 with other studies showing the cost of combined orthodontic/orthognathic treatment to be approximately US $6,2002–€6300.00,3 based on materials, staff and facilities costs. These studies were performed in Finland and the UK, respectively.
An American study has also identified the cost of the surgery alone (patient charges) ranging from $4778–$8816, for bimaxillary osteotomies, $3538–$6784, for Le Fort I osteotomies, and $3086–$5023 for bilateral sagittal split osteotomies4
Owing to the financial constraints of the NHS, these services are coming under increased pressure. Public Health England, on behalf of NHS England, published interim guidance in November 2013,5 This report stated that it wished to remove healthcare inequalities between regions, as neighbouring regions may have had different policies on the type of malocclusions that would qualify for funding within the NHS.
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