Dental reform "desperately needed" says MP as consultation launched
Sarah Gibson is urging us to help shape reform of NHS dental care
Last updated 8th Aug 2025
People across Wiltshire are being urged to help shape reforms in NHS dentistry.
It comes as a public consultation has been set up by Government to hear from people within the industry and the general public, as part of its efforts to reduce pressure on the NHS, and move the service forward.
It follows months of pushing by Chippenham MP Sarah Gibson, who has told Greatest Hits Radio reform is "desperately needed".
She says its a real step towards a better NHS dental system, but admits she's frustrated it has taken over a year to reach this point.
"Back in the autumn of last year, I was told categorically that reform was on its way and it would be very soon," she said. "Then we saw very little mention of dentistry in the government's recent 10 year plan for the NHS and now we have this consultation."
Mrs Gibson says the consultation is a positive step, but is concerned it's "not quite what was promised" in terms of reform: "We don't really know whether it's going to produce the achievements and the needs that we're calling for," she said.
She added: "Our mouths are as important a part of our overall health as any other part of our body and yet we seem to be leaving this out of the wider package.
"If you break an arm, you can be seen immediately but if your teeth become infected and you can't."
Ramping up pressure on the NHS
The Lib Dem MP told us that the closure of a dental practice last year "left a huge gap" in dental provision in her constituency.
She said the lack of NHS dental appointments is forcing people to visit A&E, or even resorting to DIY dental treatments.
Mrs Gibson said it's just piling the pressure onto an already stretched health system: "I recently discovered that over 3,500 people have used the Great Western Hospital A&E Dental department in the last four years.
"That's a massive amount of pressure on A&E when most of these people, if they'd been seen earlier wouldn't be there."
She said that the contracts that dental practices are working to can see them lose money when carrying out certain treatments on NHS patients or they have simply reached capacity on NHS appointments.
But she stressed it is a more straightforward fix compared to other parts of the NHS, calling for an agreement that doesn't mean dentists are spending long periods of time on paperwork and that allows them to re-enter the system, which is currently tough to do.
"Because of the way that the contracts work and the licencing work, it's quite difficult for them then to get back into the system.
So the inertia for them not to do so once they've left, it's quite high. So the more we lose, the less we're going to get back," Mrs Gibson said.
She's urging the Government to "listen" and "appreciate the urgency of the problem", saying she wants to see a rapid rethink of the contract to make it simpler, straightforward and effective.
The Department for Health and Social Care says it wants to incentivise dentists to deliver more NHS work and fix the foundations of dentistry.
Health Minister, Stephen Kinnock said: Health Minister Stephen Kinnock said:
"We inherited a broken NHS dental system that is in crisis. We have already started fixing this, rolling out 700,000 urgent and emergency appointments and bringing in supervising toothbrushing for 3 to 5 year olds in the most deprived areas of the country.
"But to get us to a place where patients feel NHS dentistry is reliable again, we have to tackle the problems in the system at their root.
"These reforms will bring common sense into the system again, attracting more NHS dentists, treating those with the greatest need first and changing the system to make it work.
"This is essential to our Plan for Change - building an NHS fit for the future and making sure poor oral health doesn’t hold people back from getting into work and staying healthy.
This consultation builds on action already taken to:
- roll out 700,000 additional appointments
- address the immediate needs of patients in pain
- introduce a national supervised toothbrushing programme for 3 to 5 year olds
- recruit more NHS dentists through a nationwide ‘Golden Hello’ scheme
The consultation will run for 6 weeks, closing on 19 August 2025.