NHS dentistry crisis sees thousands of kids hospitalised to have teeth extracted
Save NHS dentistry NOW by reversing Tory stealth cuts - sign our petition
Free toothbrushes at schools across England to tackle ‘Dickensian’ oral health crisis
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'I called NHS dentists for 7 years but couldn't get in, so I pulled all my teeth out'
Dentist being fined £150K by NHS for keeping patients' teeth too healthy
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Mums and grandmas sacrificing own health in NHS dentist crisis - read horror stories in full
'I pulled my own tooth out with a pipe wrench because of the unbearable toothache'
Huge change to free dental access and prescriptions in days - see if you'll be affected
Huge number of Brits to lose access to free dental work or prescriptions within days
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'I couldn't get an NHS dentist appointment despite agony - then I ended up in a coma'
NHS dental charges: Sign our petition demanding 'toxic' rises are scrapped to help families
NHS dental costs will rise in April leaving patients facing higher bills
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You can find this story in My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.Our 3 demands
Everyone should have access to an NHS dentist
More than 12 million people were unable to access NHS dental care last year – more than 1 in 4 adults in England. At the same time 90% of dental practices are no longer accepting new NHS adult patients. Data from the House of Commons Library showed 40% of children didn't have their recommended annual check-up last year.
Restore funding for dental services and recruit more NHS dentists
The UK spends the smallest proportion of its heath budget on dental care of any European nation. Government spending on dental services in England was cut by a quarter in real terms between 2010 and 2020. The number of NHS dentists is down by more than 500 to 24,151 since the pandemic.
Change the contracts
A Parliamentary report by the Health Select Committee has branded the current NHS dentists' contracts as “not fit for purpose” and described the state of the service as "unacceptable in the 21st century". The system effectively sets quotas on the maximum number of NHS patients a dentist can see as it caps the number of procedures they can perform each year. Dentists also get paid the same for delivering three or 20 fillings, often leaving them out of pocket. The system should be changed so it enables dentists to treat on the basis of patient need.
Have you had to resort to drastic measures because you couldn’t access an NHS dentist? Are you a parent struggling to get an appointment for a child? Email martin.bagot@mirror.co.uk or call 0800 282591