Alarming reports of ‘dental deserts’ demand a response from the health secretary
Rotten teeth are rarely life-threatening, thanks to antibiotics. Tooth loss mainly affects people in later life and is strongly associated with ageing and decline – a subject that many people prefer not to think about. Dentists are to a considerable extent separate from the rest of the NHS, and especially from the big hospitals where attention on the health service tends to focus. A larger proportion of dental treatment is carried out privately than other forms of healthcare. NHS England’s last GP patient survey, before the March 2020 lockdown, found that 21% of people in the south-east have a private dentist.
A combination of these factors probably explains why dentistry is often left out of discussions about the NHS. A sharp fall in the number of NHS dentists, combined with alarming regional disparities leading to “dental deserts” where there are few or none, shows how urgently this needs to change. The latest figure of 21,544 NHS dentists in England is the lowest for a decade, with acute shortages in counties including Lincolnshire and Norfolk. In Thurrock, Essex, just 26.1% of adults and 30.7% of children have seen a dentist in the past two years. Figures in several other areas are not much better.
