A leading North East dentist has warned NHS dentistry is under "immense pressure"

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NHS dentistry is "in crisis" according to the dental director in charge of 30 North East practices.

With new figures showing that, in some areas, almost two-thirds of adults haven't seen a dentist in the last two years, industry leaders have warned that the industry has been "under-resourced for well over a decade" and said they fear the consequences of Brexit could lead to there being fewer NHS dentists around England.

According to newly-released NHS figures, across England just 35.5% of adults had seen a dentist in the previous two years, and just 42.5% of children had seen one in the past year.

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This has improved on the figures a year earlier, but is still a substantial fall compared to before the pandemic - when 53% of children had seen a dentist in the preceding 12 months.

The figures all measure adults seen in the last two years and children seen in the last year.

In the North East, the picture is similar to the national one. In the County Durham CCG area just 35.1% of adults and 38.4% of children had been seen.

Rates elsewhere in the region are higher, but in all of North Tyneside (38.9% of adults, 43.7% of children), Northumberland (40.8% of adults, 46% of children), Newcastle and Gateshead (41.8% of adults, 48.3% of children) South Tyneside (47.4% of adults, 43.7% of children) and Sunderland (43.2% of adults, 40.4% of children), more than half of people hadn't seen a dentist recently.

The Association of Dental Groups has warned this is a situation being exacerbated by pressures on staffing - the professional body has carried out a survey showing that two thirds (66%) of dentists are likely to reduce their NHS commitments this year, with more than a third (34%) planning to go fully private.

In February, the British Dental Association said the number of dentists working in the NHS had fallen by "almost a thousand" in the last year.

Ian Gordon, is dental director at Riverdale Healthcare, which operates NHS practices in areas across the region including in Blaydon, Gateshead, Gosforth and Hebburn.

He said: "NHS Dentistry has been under resourced for well over a decade, while NHS contract values paid to dentists have fallen, patient charges have increased by 36%.

"This has resulted in the net spend on NHS dentistry falling from £2.2bn in 2012 to £1.8bn in 2018-19."

Ian also highlighted the impact of historic dental school closures on recruitment of dentists in "hard to reach areas" and said the EU had propped NHS dentistry services up.

He said: "NHS dentistry has only survived as long as it has due to recruitment from the EU. Brexit has had a devastating impact on the ability to recruit with what was previously a steady stream of locum and associate dentists willing to work here being reduced to zero."

The top dentist added that Covid-19 had had an impact, too. "During this period, dentists adapted to new ways of working , sometimes having to meet the needs of patients under private contract arrangements where they had the freedoms to choose how they practised. Whilst NHS England support was welcome during the pandemic, funding has been abated and current contractual targets are likely to be impossible to meet for a significant number of practices."

Saying this could lead to funding being "clawed back" by the NHS centrally, he added: "It is therefore a perfect storm of fewer dentists available, coupled with a change of attitude from dentists who no longer wish to work under the contract system, working free from the restrictions of NHS command and control.

"Brexit and Covid has not caused the problems that NHS dentistry has today - it has merely exposed the inherent weakness."

Since Brexit, interim arrangements have allowed new dentists to register in the UK with qualifications from the European Economic Area. The ADG said 22% of new NHS dentists in 2020 had been people with European qualifications - and highlighted that should these arrangements end, this would put "immense pressure on the current NHS dentistry workforce".

Neil Carmichael, Chair of the ADG said the figures were sign of an "alarming trend" - and said "rural and coastal communities" had been hardest hit.

A Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spokesperson said: "The NHS is providing £50m for up to 350,000 extra dental appointments to allow more people to get the oral care they need.

"That’s on top of our unprecedented support for NHS dentists during the pandemic, which included protecting the incomes of dental practices which couldn’t deliver all their usual services."

"We welcome overseas dentists who wish to practise in the UK and are currently consulting to make their registration processes easier."

In January the DHSC announced an extra £50m in funding to provide "hundreds of thousands more" appointments with dentists. It also said there were - according to General Dental Council Registration reports - 264 more dentists registered at the end of 2021 than a year earlier.

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