Nine in 10 dental practices not accepting new NHS patients

According to research by the BBC, nine in 10 NHS dental practices across the UK are not taking on new adult patients for NHS treatment, with eight in 10 not accepting children.

The Department of Health has said that improving NHS access was a priority and it had made an extra £50m available "to help bust the Covid backlogs".

The researchers spoke to people across the UK who could not afford private fees and there were reports of people driving hundreds of miles in search of treatment, pulling out their own teeth without anaesthesia, making their own improvised dentures and restricting their food intake, to essentially soup only.

Dentists have warned that homemade dentures are a choking hazard as well as being food traps that can lead to worse tooth decay and gum damage.

In Scotland, 18 per cent of practices were taking on new NHS patients, in Wales it was seven per cent, in England nine per cent and Northern Ireland 10 per cent.

In Lancashire, Norfolk, Devon and Leeds, no practices were accepting new adult NHS patients.

According to the research, the problem is most extreme in the south-west of England, Yorkshire and the Humber and the North West, where 98 per cent of practices were not accepting new adult NHS patients. On the other hand, in London around a quarter of practices were taking on new adult NHS patients.

Despite the fact that children in full-time education are entitled to free NHS dental care, one in 10 local authorities did not have any practices accepting under-16s for NHS treatment.
    
Furthermore, around 200 practices said they would only accept a child NHS patient, if the parent signed up as a private patient.

The research also found that many practices do not have waiting lists and for those that do, the waiting times are generally over a year.

The British Dental Association, which represents NHS dentists in the UK, said that after a decade of under-investment, NHS dentistry was at a "tipping point".

NHS England commented it had recently made changes to the dentistry contract and that it would "support practices to improve access, including giving high-performing practices the opportunity to increase their activity and treat more patients".