Following concerns from a number of residents and health professionals, the MP for Stockton South is urging the Government to take the NHS dentistry crisis seriously and consider “radical reform” of the 2006 dental contract amongst other solutions.
Locally, the Tees Valley CCG has seen a drop of 12 NHS dentists between 2018/19 and 2020/21 with over 100,000 NHS dental appointments being lost in Stockton-on-Tees between April 2020 and November 2021.
People in the North East were most likely not to have been to the dentist in over 10 years and twice more likely to have used a temporary filling kit than the national average. People living in the North East are also most likely to have not received any type of dental care since the start of the pandemic.
According to a survey used to inform mydentist’s Great British Oral Health Report, 70% of respondents have wanted to see a dentist in the last 2 years but only 43% managed to get an appointment in the two years leading up to April 2021. This suggests more than 14 million people tried and were unable to get a dental appointment in this time period.
Of those who had not seen a dentist in the last year, the most common reason for not visiting a dentist was that their usual dental practice did not have any appointments (28%).
Matt Vickers said:
“Although COVID has made a bad situation even worse, NHS dentistry has been neglected for 15 years. If we are at all serious about levelling up healthcare across the UK, we must do more to address the grave situation dentistry is facing.
“Millions are missing out on appointments, DIY tooth extraction is on the rise, mouth cancers are going undiagnosed and health professionals are leaving NHS dentistry by the boatload.
“Make no mistake that this is already a national crisis.
“The North/South divide is also increasing with people in the North East most likely have not received any type of dental care since the start of the pandemic and twice more likely to have used DIY kits than the national average.
“Whilst the £50m cash injection for dentistry treatment is welcome, it will be a drop in the ocean in the unprecedented backlogs that NHS dentistry faces.
“Securing long term funding, increasing the number of training places for budding dentists, utilising our Commonwealth links to entice English-speaking dentists and radical reform of the 2006 dental contract are all vital to rescue NHS dentistry, retain staff and deliver better access and preventative care.
“I will continue raising this matter with Ministers and ensure this crisis is treated with the urgency it requires.”
