Revealed: 80% of NHS dentists have shut their door to new patients, according to shock analysis… so is YOURS one of them?

Of 4,969 dental surgeries across the country, 82% are not accepting new adults
The figure is even bleaker in some parts of the country, at 99% in the South West

Eight in 10 dentists in England are not accepting new adult patients, a shocking analysis suggests.

Of the 4,969 dental surgeries across the country who have recently updated their status, 82 per cent are not adding new over-18s to their list.

Another 71 per cent aren’t taking new children, NHS data shows.

But the figures are even bleaker in some parts of the country, with 99 per cent of practices in the South West seemingly rejecting requests from adults seeking NHS dental care.

MailOnline’s handy interactive tool lets you input your postcode to check the status of dentists in your area.

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The collapse of NHS dentistry has seen millions miss vital checkups.

Some have resorted to queuing overnight for a place with a practice or resorting to DIY dentistry.

Labour, which analysed the data, said that it would ramp-up funding to NHS dental practices, providing hundreds of thousands more appointments and incentives for dentists to works in the parts of the country with the greatest need.

The data shows that there are 6,605 dental practices in England.

Of these, 4,969 have provided recent responses to the NHS regarding their patient list status.

Behind the South West, the situation is also dire in North East, where just 97 per cent of practices are open to taking new adult patients, followed by the East Midlands (94 per cent) and East of England (91 per cent).

Meanwhile, it is easiest in London, where six in 10 clinics are accepting, followed by the West Midlands (73 per cent) and the North West (77 per cent).

Only 43 per cent of over-18s were seen by a dentist in the 24 months to June this year, compared to more than half in the same period before the pandemic struck

Overall, 18.1million adults saw their dentist in the two years to June 2023, up from 16.4million in the 24 months to June 2022. But it is still well below the 21million seen in the two years to June 2020

How much does NHS dentistry cost?

There are 3 NHS charge bands:

Band 1: £25.80

Covers an examination, diagnosis and advice. If necessary, it also includes X-rays, a scale and polish, and planning for further treatment.

Band 2: £70.70

Covers all treatment included in Band 1, plus additional treatment, such as fillings, root canal treatment and removing teeth (extractions).

Band 3: £306.80

Covers all treatment included in Bands 1 and 2, plus more complex procedures, such as crowns, dentures and bridges.

For comparison, check-ups can cost between £20 and £120 at private dentists, according to Which?.

Dentures and bridges can also cost up to £2,520, the consumer watchdog says.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘The Conservatives have left NHS dentistry to wither on the vine, and now the service is barely worthy of the name.

‘Patients are told to go without or do it themselves, with DIY dentistry now shockingly common in Tory Britain.

‘The slow death of dentistry is the Ghost of Christmas Future for the NHS, if the Conservatives are given a fifth term: those who can afford it going private and those who can’t left with a poor service for poor people.

‘Labour has a fully-costed plan to rescue NHS dentistry by gripping the immediate crisis and reforming the service in the long-term.’

NHS dentistry has been in crisis for years, with leaders claiming the sector has been chronically underfunded making it financially unviable to carry out treatments.

Exacerbating the problem is that, as more dentists leave the NHS, those that remain become swamped by more and more patients, resulting in a domino effect.

Patients have told of queuing from 4am outside dental practices to gain a spot at practices which have opened up their list to NHS patients — a phenomenon that experts have warned is becoming the ‘new normal’.

Practices have complained of receiving thousands of calls when they open a handful of slots for new patients.

Patients say they have been forced to perform DIY dentistry after struggling to access NHS care.

NHS dental services at ‘their most perilous point’ with the worst crisis in 75 years that could see services slashed, report warns

By Kate Pickles

NHS dental services are at their ‘most perilous point’ ever and radical reforms are needed to ‘slow the decay’, a report warns.

Experts at the Nuffield Trust say the situation is so bad the service must now be limited to just check-ups, pain management and emergency treatment.

It comes after reports of patients across the country forced to queue overnight for what few NHS dental places become available – as figures show only four in ten adults have seen a health service dentist in the past two years.

The trust – a charitable organisation aimed at improving healthcare in the UK – said a sweeping overhaul is needed, as the days of heavily subsidised NHS dentistry are ‘gone for good’.

And there are fears for future generations, with tooth decay now the most common reason for a hospital admission for children aged six to ten, who should be able to access the service for free.

Dental services must now be limited to just check ups, pain management and emergency treatment, experts say (Stock Image)

The report insists that efforts must be made to lure back dentists from the lucrative private sector, where many have fled, by offering better contracts based on work carried out rather than targets which can see them actually lose money for treating NHS patients.

Even then, restoring universal access ‘would cost billions each year’, largely paying for care that people are currently getting by paying privately at an enhanced rate.

The average fee for an initial consultation with a private dentist is now £74 while the same appointment on the NHS costs £25.80.

Dental leaders said the report reads ‘like the last rites for NHS dentistry’, while accusing successive governments of ‘muddling through’ rather than delivering reforms.

The pandemic, austerity and the rising cost of living have all been blamed for quickening the demise, with six million fewer treatments on the NHS carried out last year compared to pre-Covid levels.

Total spending for dental services was £3.1billion in 2021/22, a decline of £525million in real terms since 2014/15.

In a letter to Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Victoria Atkins, the British Dental Association (BDA) said the access crisis was being fuelled by an ‘exodus’ of NHS dentists and warned the service ‘risks being swept away’ unless there are widespread changes.

A ‘drift’ into the private sector was exacerbated by Covid-19, with dentists reducing their NHS commitments.

And despite the growing crisis, there was no post-Covid recovery planned in the same way as other health services, such as waiting lists, the report said.

As a result, it states: ‘The NHS is not commissioning enough dentistry to cover the needs of the population.’

It therefore calls for an urgent imperative to provide enough access to a basic core service for children, older people and those who cannot afford private care.

This would mean ‘removing some of the rights to NHS services which people currently enjoy in theory – but usually go without in reality’, the authors add.

The report points to the failings of the current dental contract – introduced by Labour in 2006 – adding it must be changed to make treatment of NHS patients financially worthwhile.

Figures show only four in ten adults have seen a health service dentist in the past two years

Under the current remuneration, dentists are paid for batches or courses of treatments delivered rather than for every single item or procedure.

It meant that until last year dentists received the same remuneration from the NHS for a patient who required ten fillings as for a patient who required one.

The Government made some changes to the NHS dentistry contract at the start of the financial year, but these were dismissed by the BDA as ‘minor tweaks’.

Thea Stein, chief executive of Nuffield Trust, said: ‘We need to see immediate action taken to slow the decay of NHS dentistry, but it is increasingly clear that we can no longer muddle through with an endless series of tweaks to the contract.

‘If, as seems, that the original model of NHS dentistry is gone for good, then surely the imperative is to provide enough access for a basic core service for those most in need.’

The number of dentists delivering NHS care dropped by 121 last year from 24,272 to 24,151, with the number falling by more than 500 since lockdown.

Separate analysis by the Labour Party found eight in ten practices had closed their doors to new patients. Of 4,969 dental surgeries in England, 4,112 said they weren’t accepting new adult patients and 3,531 were not taking on children.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: ‘We fund more than £3billion of NHS dentistry a year and… have plans to increase dental training places by 40 per cent.’

An NHS spokesman added the service had ‘implemented the first reforms to dentistry in 16 years,’ which are helping to address the backlogs from the pandemic, adding: ‘Dental activity [is] up by more than a fifth on last year.’

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