Dental disaster sees just one in 10 practices taking over new NHS sufferers

EXCLUSIVE: Dentistry investigation suggests it is virtually impossible to get in as a new NHS patient at practices in most of England – apart from two regions

View 3 Images

Fewer than one in ten dental practices are taking on new NHS patients, an investigation suggests.

A probe of dental practices across the country indicates that it is almost impossible for adults to get in with an NHS dentist in most regions of the country – apart from two. In contrast to the rest of England, most practices in the West Midlands and London regions listed as taking as taking on new NHS patients appear to be doing so.

While there have been slight improvements since the Mirror conducted a similar investigation two years ago, campaigners say progress under Labour has been slow and are demanding the service is properly funded to restore universal access.

The Mirror has launched the Dentists for All campaign to tackle the nation’s oral health crisis which has left many people in agony and resorting to yanking out their own teeth.

Adrian Ramsay MP, health lead for the Green Party, whose team conducted the latest research, said: “It is a damning indictment of this Labour Government that, two years into their term, access to dental care remains a postcode lottery and millions of people are being left in pain without basic care they are entitled to. Successive Governments have failed to get a grip of the problem and it needs to end here.”

Just months after Labour came to power in November 2024 a Mirror probe collated responses from 6,500 practices on the NHS “Find a Dentist” website and found 4,800 – or 73% – were not currently accepting new adult patients.

Data from earlier this year from the same NHS data source listed on the UK Parliament website shows this had improved by just 1% to 74%.

Of those listed on the NHS website as taking on new adult NHS patients “where availability allows”, a Mirror probe in 2024 indicated that only 26% of these were actually taking on new patients at that time.

The same investigation has now been conducted now by the Green Party and shows this has increased to around 38%. Party researchers contacted a sample of 135 practices across England listed as taking on new NHS patients “where availability allows” – and found many actually have long waiting lists of up to four years.

The combined figures suggest that overall fewer than one in ten dental practices across England are currently taking on new NHS patients. One stated its waiting list was “at least 25 pages of A4″.

MyDentist is the biggest dental chain in the country and runs more than 500 practices serving over four million patients. Yet, of the 44 listed on the NHS site as offering places, only four were accepting new NHS patients.

The Green Party contacted a sample of 135 dental practices from each region of England that were listed on the NHS Find a Dentist website as accepting new adult patients. The findings show:

• Every practice contacted in Yorkshire and Humberside was not accepting new NHS adult patients (0/15) with some reporting four year waiting lists.
• In East Anglia only one practice out of 15 was accepting new NHS patients (1/15).
• In the North East and South West we found only two practices out of 15 accepting new NHS patients (2/15).
• In the North West just three out of 15 were accepting new NHS patients (3/15). In the South East 7 out of 15 had places.
• In contrast, 13 and out 15 practices in the West Midlands are accepting new NHS
• In London 11 out of 15 were accepting new NHS adult patients.

You get what you pay for

NHS dental funding for England remained at around £3 billion for more than a decade under the Tories, failing to keep pace with inflation and population growth.

This was only enough to fund care for half the population of England and analysis by the British Dental Association found this equated to a £1bn real terms funding cut as dentists quit the NHS in their droves.

Labour increased the annual budget to £3.5bn for 2024/25 and has promised by the end of this parliament to fundamentally reform the NHS dental contract – which has driven the exodus of dentists going private.

However the BDA says fundamental reform cannot be achieved without an extra £1.5 billion more a year to restore NHS dentistry as a universal service for all who want it.

Adrian Ramsay added: “That is why the Green Party is demanding this government inject a minimum of £1.5bn into NHS dentistry because that’s what’s needed to ensure everyone who wants to is able to access an NHS appointment.”

The crisis in NHS dentistry came about as the proportion of the NHS budget spent on dentistry fell from 3.3% in 2010 to just 1.5% in 2024.

BDA Chair Eddie Crouch said: “Labour came to power promising change but the crisis facing millions is still with us. Warm words won’t give people the dental care they need. That will require real reform and sustainable funding.”

It comes after Labour announced 50 new dentist training places at universities in two of the country’s worst dental deserts where people ripping out their own teeth is commonplace. The government has also expanded places on professional registration exams for overseas-trained dentists.

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “After years of decline, too many people are struggling to access the dental care they need. This government has taken swift action to rebuild NHS dentistry, delivering 1.8 million additional courses of treatment.

“Our reforms to the dental contract prioritise patients with the greatest needs, improving access across the country, and delivering a better deal for dentists while our prevention programme is building healthy dental habits in around 600,000 children, tackling tooth decay from an early age.

“To build a sustainable workforce, we’re also rolling out more dentistry school training places in underserved areas and cutting red tape to allow qualified dentists to practise.”