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LIVING
NHS Dentists
NHS dental services: do you know the drill, or are you
fed-up to the back teeth? By Judith Ozkan.
If you are one of the many people
who have been struggling to
get dental treatment after the
pandemic, being asked to lie back
in the chair and open wide might
seem like a distant memory. With
dentists as rare as hens' teeth these
days, you'd be forgiven for feeling a
little down in the mouth - nor are
you alone.
In August, a BBC documentary -
Disappearing Dentists - laid bare the
UK dental crisis and revealed:
• Nine in 10 NHS dental practices
across the UK are not accepting
new adult patients.
• In a third of the UK's 200-plus
council areas there were no
dentists taking on adult NHS
patients.
• Eight out of 10 NHS practices are
not taking on children.
The lack of dentists also became
a political hot potato in the
Conservative leadership race, with
both candidates pledging to act on
the dental crisis as a top priority.
Winning candidate Liz Truss stated
that action on the access crisis in
dentistry and general practice would
be a 'top 3' target in her first 90 days
in office. The clock is ticking….
The importance of looking after
your teeth is instilled into every
child from nursery school onwards.
Good dental hygiene is particularly
important for some of us, as anyone
with Type 2 diabetes is around three
times more likely to develop tooth
and gum problems than people who
don't have diabetes. Those with
Type 1 diabetes are also more at risk.
Despite this known link between
diabetes and tooth problems, there
is no entitlement to free or priority
treatment within the NHS. It's not
considered part of any routine
diabetes care and the responsibility
(as if anyone needed another
responsibility), is on you to book
your own check-up and search for
a dentist if you don't have one. This
might not be an issue if the UK wasn't
in the grip of a dental crisis.
Dental care crisis
The voice of the profession, the
British Dental Association (BDA) has
referred to the situation as a 'national
disgrace' and says the severity of
the crisis in UK dentistry cannot be
over-stated. "It's no exaggeration
that we are facing a crisis in dental
care in the UK with a staggering 9
out of 10 dental practices unable to
offer NHS appointments to new adult
patients and 8 in 10 not accepting
new child patients," says Shawn
Charlwood, Chair of the British
Dental Association (BDA)'s General
Dental Practice Committee. BDA is
campaigning hard at the moment and
there are lots of stories in the press
generated by them.
The BDA also says that dentists
themselves have little to smile
about. Many who closed during the
pandemic never reopened. Those
that did reopen, struggled to find
staff and were forced to operate at
limited capacity under restrictions
which meant it was hard to clear the
backlog. A lot of practices, unhappy
with NHS remuneration, opted to
go private leaving NHS patients with
limited options. Dental services have
never recovered to pre-pandemic
levels, and even if you can find a
surgery that takes on NHS patients,
they may have a waiting list. Data
from the BDA shows that between
March 2021 and 2022 of the 24,272
dentists with NHS contracts in
England, 15% - almost 4,000 - are
carrying out just one course of NHS
treatment a month.
What can you do if you are