The advice comes after authority representatives were invited by the Jersey Dental Association to discuss the effects of the new Competition Law.
Dentists were advised by authority representatives that the JDA’s practice of recommending a scale of fees could be violating the law – which came into effect last week – because it could be preventing or reducing price competition among local dental practices.
However, association member Jonathan Wood, a Bachelor of Dental Surgery, said that the scale of fees referred to was one requested some years ago by the States.
It was his belief that this scale of fees was not followed in many surgeries and that the majority charged fees appropriate to their own practice and services on offer, as well as to the scale of the work needing to be done.
To make the situation clear, the JDA has advised its members that recommended fees have been stopped and must no longer be displayed in surgeries.
Dentists have also been reminded that they are free to establish their own fees and display them.
