Ruabon Road Dental Practice in Wrexham has had to reduce its capacity as a result of recruitment and retention issues.
At the beginning of April 2023, patients were informed that the practice would no longer see them.
Speaking to The Leader, one of the practice’s former patients said, “I received a letter at the weekend telling me that they can't offer me NHS treatment, but that appointments already booked will be honoured. In the letter, they noted that no retraction of the decision is possible and you can't question the decision.
“The letter says that it is because of dentists leaving so I thought as I had a dentist, it shouldn't affect me. There's been no patient care with this decision or concern as to who can and can't afford to pay privately.
"They have left patients with a lot of worry and cost."
Since the announcement, the practice has confirmed that the primary reason for downsizing was due to recruitment and retention issues.
The practice has also informed the 670 people on its NHS waiting list that they will not be able to invite them for an assessment for at least 12 months.
Suzanne Davies, practice manager, said, “We have been in continual dialogue with the Health Board to find a solution and losing NHS patients was not the outcome we hoped for.
"The reality of the situation is that for the safety and well-being of our team and our patients, we have no alternative other than to reduce our NHS capacity so we may continue to provide safe and effective dental care to our remaining 8,000 NHS patients.
"Despite their lists being at full capacity, our current NHS dentists have kindly agreed to treat children under the age of 18 years that were under the leaving dentists' lists to ensure they receive continuous NHS care.
"We would love to be able to retain all of our patients that have benefitted from NHS care and been customers of ours for many years.
"However, due to regulations set out by NHS Wales, we cannot choose the patients that we keep or lose based on how long they have been with us or any other selection criteria.”
"We are obliged to remove the patients that were under our departed NHS dentists' lists and of the dentists that have reduced their contracts".
Dan Naylor, the clinical director, adds, “We remain committed to our patients and continue our campaign to recruit more NHS dentists so we can hopefully welcome patients back in the future. We pride ourselves in our transparency and will continue to keep our community informed of any changes”.