More than three in five children have not seen an NHS dentist in the past year in parts of England, researchers have found.
In Brighton and Hove, the figure is more than one in three, or about 16,000 children, while across the rest of Sussex the proportion stood at more than two in five.
House of Commons Library research, which the Liberal Democrats published at their autumn conference in Brighton, showed that more than 5.3 million children are thought not to have seen an NHS dentist in the past year.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said that the figures highlighted a “scandal” and called for an emergency dental registration scheme for children.
According to the numbers, more than half of children had not seen a dentist across 33 local authority areas including in 13 London boroughs.
In Herefordshire, almost 21,000 children were identified as not having seen a dentist in the past year, out of an estimated cohort of just over 34,000 (61.6 per cent). The figures rose to 33,834 out of 54,352 (62.2 per cent) in Hackney, in London.
In Brighton and Hove, more than a third of children – 36.5 per cent – did not see a dentist in the past year. With almost 45,000 under-16s in the area, this equated to more than 16,000 children.
The figures were higher in neighbouring areas. In West Sussex, the figure was 43.8 per cent. And in East Sussex, it was 44.6 per cent – down from almost two thirds (64.7 per cent) during the coronavirus pandemic
Ms Cooper said: “It’s a scandal that, across the country, millions of children are going without basic dental care.
“The previous Conservative government mismanaged NHS dentistry so badly that they presided over under-spends in the dentistry budget while children’s teeth were left to rot.
“This appalling situation cannot go on. We Liberal Democrats are calling for an emergency registration scheme so that children who are eligible for free check ups can actually access them and for reform of the broken dental contract to bring more dentists back to the NHS and end the scandal of dental deserts.
“The new government cannot waste any time in gripping this emergency and rescuing NHS dentistry to ensure our children get the care they deserve.”
According to the NHS, patients with good oral health will “probably need to attend only once every 12 to 24 months but those with more problems will need check ups more often”.
And this is because the dentists cannot make a living out of what the NHS pays them. Dentists operate as businesses, much like GP surgeries. However that can make a living by doing private only. Dentists face mounting costs (rent, equipment, supplies, wages, compliance, pensions, holidays etc etc). If you want free dentistry for kids then pay dentists more, or introduce a government subsidised insurance plan. Or employ NHS dentists directly.
None of this is rocket science.
The NHS needs to prioritize where it spends the money it has. Maybe look at all the managerial and DEI roles ?
Chris makes a good point. The NHS dentist contract is not competitive compared to doing the same thing privately, so why would they?
Most of my friends tell me that they do not go to the dentist upon fears of extra costs which feeds into the cycle of hoping for the best until its the worst case scenario.
Whoever thought making NHS Dentistry for PROFIT maybe profited enough and its time to give it back to the public? But I doubt the CHANGE in their pockets is not going to motivate them to change the system too much.
Ultimately, they are private businesses that receive NHS funding for some services, like Pharmacies, so they do have to consider their financial health for the offers that they provide. The problem stems from that the reimbursement that the NHS gives dentistry is poor, so it is very unattractive, and in some cases, would be unviable as a business.
To me, the challenge is a central government one, although, I think there are some ad-hoc short-term solutions we could do in the community such as mobile dentists, pop-up clinics, and social events that may offer an alternative funding method for the clinicians outside of the typical NHS structure. It’s not something I’ve explored in any particular depth at the moment, but certainly something worth thinking about, thanks Hannah.
Its just a shame that my friend’s account is not an isolated case and that a generation of children are conditioned unfortunately to fear and avoid help in addition to the rising cost of living.
There needs to be a more assertive outreach approach such as school dentist registry to normalise the idea that children should not be scared of dentists and it should not be such a life altering financial event should extra costs occur ?
Even if its just to let them feel it is okay to seek help and promote help seeking behaviour?
But I digress, I understand I am no expert on the complexity of the economic strategy on how NHS Dentistry is prescribed, but it certainly does not promote positive help seeking behaviour from my observations so far.
Nothing wrong with that opinion at all, I quite agree with outreach of healthcare, even to a broader scale beyond dentistry, but other professions. The stitch in time mentality is very important, particularly in healthcare.