It is vital that we can access good quality dentistry services when we need to.
Over the past 15 years, access to dentistry services across the country has become increasingly difficult.
In South Yorkshire, there are communities that have levels of tooth decay which are more than four times higher than other parts of the country.
From 2023/24 in Barnsley alone, more than 370 hospital admissions were made for children’s tooth extractions, and approximately 29 per cent of ten and 11 year olds in the area had experienced tooth decay.
Shockingly, only 39 per cent of children in the UK were considered to have good oral health in 2023, with tooth decay the most common reason for hospital admissions in five to nine year olds.
I ran a survey on dentistry to hear directly from the community in Barnsley about their experiences with NHS dentistry.
I found that, in our community, over 61 per cent of people who responded to the survey hadn’t seen a dentist in two years or more, and only 15 per cent of respondents said that it wasn’t ‘difficult’ or ‘very difficult’ to access dentistry services.
Indeed, last year, the BDA reported that 96.9 per cent of people across the country who did not have a dentist and tried to access NHS dental care were unsuccessful in getting an appointment.
Our Dentistry Rescue Plan outlined a number of measures to get dentistry back on track.
This has included providing 700,000 more urgent dental appointments to be rolled out as soon as possible to combat the backlog.
The Health Secretary recommitted to delivering on this in the House of Commons chamber last month.
It will also mean recruiting more dentists in areas that need them most to alleviate the crisis in the short term.
In the longer-term, the government’s plan will reform the dental contract, shifting the focus onto preventing problems, like ensuring that three to five year olds know how to properly brush their teeth, and the retention of NHS dentists.
These measures are a step in the right direction towards recovering dentistry services across the country, and I am sure that they will be welcomed across South Yorkshire, where dental services need urgent attention.
