Drop in the number of people in North Yorkshire seeing NHS dentists
There are warnings parts of the UK have become "dental deserts"
There has been a drop in the number of people in North Yorkshire being seen by a dentist in the last two years.
A new report shows it has fallen by nearly 10 percent for both adults and children in the county and almost 15 percent in York.
Mark Green represents the General Dental Practice Committee in North Yorkshire. He currently works as a dentist in Kirbymoorside but used to own one himself in Whitby.
He said: "Dentists in the whole population are few and far between now. I think Covid didn't help matters but it hasn't been the main reason. It's just been one thing that's made it a bit more obvious but it hasn't been the main driver. The main driver for NHS issues is the contract which is deemed unfit for purpose but no-one is prepared to do anything about it it seems.
"If you have poor oral health then it follows that your general health is poor and oral health is preventable with the right education and the right interventions at the right time. When you're coming in with toothache, it's too late. It needs to be before that. The trouble is is that we have such a backlog there's no-one out there to do it all so the likes of us who are left are feeling even more pressure.
"I mean today is a typical example where we're squeezing people in left, right and centre where we can. We don't have many 'fail to attends' but that's another factor that makes it very frustrating when people don't turn up for a routine check-up, because you could have seen someone else and we don't know they're not going to turn up until they don't turn up which is too late. Anyone who does have a check up, make sure you attend because that space is valuable.
"Don't do dentistry yourself. It's taken me five years as an undergraduate and the rest of my life to become anywhere decent at this job. If you do something wrong you can create a whole host of problems, so my advice would be don't but if you can't get access then that's the problem. We've been pushing for this to be a priority for this Government and the next Government.
"Dentists are working flat out. I'm working flat out. Everyone who works in the NHS particularly is finding it very pressurised and to have children who haven't been in for a couple of years is disgraceful. We have to send so many through to the hospital service to have general anaesthestic to have all these teeth taken out which could've been prevented had there been an adequate prevention programme in the first place.
"The urgency is with the Government. The dentists are here in certain numbers but we need more. We need more investment in training, we need more dental schools to take more students on and we need to attract people to the NHS. It's a quick win and then they'll have a lot of dentists wanting to work in the NHS rather than a lot of dentists working in the private sector."
The report
Fewer than half of children saw a dentist in the past year in England, with opposition MPs warning that parts of the country have become "dental deserts".
Data commissioned by the Liberal Democrats found that there are as many as 3,000 people per NHS dentist in some English areas.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey has issued caution that the dental crisis is leading desperate people to resort to performing so-called DIY dentistry.
Commons Library research commissioned by the Lib Dems showed that fewer than one in two (44%) children saw an NHS dentist in the last year, while just one third of adults saw an NHS dentist in the past two years.
Out of 104 local areas in England, 65 have seen the number of people per dentist rise since 2019, the figures indicate.
A poll commissioned by the Lib Dems last year revealed that a fifth of people who failed to get an NHS dentist appointment in the past year turned to DIY dentistry.
In the Savanta ComRes survey of 2,234 UK adults carried out in August, 21% said they attempted to carry out dental work on themselves or asked somebody else who was not a dentist to assist them.
Another 26% delayed seeing a dentist despite suffering pain, while more than a quarter paid for private treatment.
The British Dental Association (BDA) said its own data indicated that hundreds of dentists were undertaking the equivalent of a single NHS check-up a year.
Eddie Crouch, the association's chairman, said: "Dental deserts are on the rise, but the true scale of the exodus from the NHS is going untracked in official data.
"The Prime Minister keeps boasting of 500 'new' dentists in the NHS. The reality is we have 500 doing a single check-up a year.
"We need a reality check from government, together with honesty, ambition and investment."
The Department of Health and Social Care said ministers were preparing to announce further measures to "improve" access to NHS dental surgeries.
A spokesman said: "We are working to improve access to NHS dental care by investing more than £3 billion a year.
"We reformed the NHS dental contract to encourage more dentists to provide NHS treatments and allow dental therapists and hygienists to offer extra services, and increased the amount practices receive for high-need patients.
"There were over 500 more dentists delivering NHS care in 2022 than in 2021, but we know there is more to do and we will be announcing further measures to improve access across the country soon."