The British Dental Association (BDA) has responded to new analysis commissioned by the Liberal Democrats, warning that the picture is far worse owing to the paucity of official data.
The Commons Library research shows how the rise in “dental deserts” has left people struggling to get an appointment, with some areas now having over 3,000 people for every NHS dentist. The figures show that 65 of 104 local areas in England have seen the number of people per dentist rise since 2019.
However, the BDA stresses most dentists combine NHS and private work, and officials have no estimate of the whole-time equivalent NHS workforce. The BDA’s analysis of official data shows hundreds of dentists are doing the equivalent of a single NHS check-up a year.
BDA polls indicate that over half of the dentists in England (50.3 per cent) report having reduced their NHS commitment since the start of the pandemic – by 27 per cent on average. This movement is not tracked in official workforce data, which counts heads, not commitment, and where dentists doing one NHS check-up a year carry the same weight as an NHS full-timer. There are fewer dentists performing higher volumes of NHS dentistry in 2021/22 than in 2019/20, with the proportion performing over 5000 UDAs falling by more than half.
Analysis undertaken by the BDA indicates unmet need for dentistry in 2022 stood at over 11 million people, or almost one in four of England's adult population.
Eddie Crouch, British Dental Association chair, said, “Dental deserts are on the rise, but the true scale of the exodus from the NHS is going untracked in official data.
“The prime minister keeps boasting of 500 ‘new’ dentists in the NHS. The reality is we have 500 doing a single check-up a year.
“We need a reality check from government, together with honesty, ambition and investment.”