Newhaven residents left without NHS dental care

Claire Alexander, 48, broke her front tooth over Christmas but was unable to afford private treatment.

She was quoted £80 just for the initial check-up, and 2 years ago had to pay out £600 as she needed several teeth urgently removed. She is currently on an NHS wait list, but doesn’t know how long she will need to wait.

Another local resident Kate Macdonald, 43, said: “I'm struggling to get my kids booked onto an NHS dentist. I had them on the books for one, and I went for check ups. But then lockdown happened. I tried to rebook after lockdown but was told they were taken off as they hadn't been for over a year!”

BBC research shows that 97% of East Sussex Dentists are unable to accept new NHS patients, 7% above the national average.

Across the UK, only 25% of dentists not currently accepting new NHS patients had an open waiting list, 17% had a wait time of over a year or were unable to say how long the wait would be, according to the BBC.

Their findings show that disadvantaged areas suffer the most from lack of dental care, with 24% of those in the most affluent communities reporting toothache or other oral pain, compared to 41% in the most deprived.

For those who can access NHS dentistry, charges of between £23.80 and £282.80 still apply.

James MacCleary, Newhaven Councillor and Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate, said: "We are in the grip of a widespread health crisis and dentistry is no exception. Residents across our local towns and villages cannot get access to NHS dentists for check ups or routine procedures and it is leading to serious consequences.”

The British Dental Association (BDA), the trade union representing dentists and dental students, have criticised the 2006 NHS dental contract which they say puts government targets ahead of patient need, setting a limit on the numbers of NHS treatments a dentist can do in a year. The system funds care for little over half the population and sets ‘perverse’ incentives for dentists, rewarding them for oversubscribing treatment, according to the BDA.

The BDA report that NHS dentistry would need £880 million per year to recover from cuts to the service and restore resources to 2010 levels.

Since the start of the pandemic, nearly half of dentist practices say they have reduced their NHS commitment, according to the BDA.

Shawn Charlwood, Chair of the BDA's General Dental Practice Committee, said: "Overstretched and underfunded, thousands of dentists have already left the NHS, but many more have begun severing their ties. This is how NHS dentistry will die, a lingering decline that unchecked will leave millions of patients with no options. This Government has ensured many dentists cannot see a future in this service. Without urgent reform and adequate funding there is little hope we can halt this exodus."John Routledge, the Director of Healthwatch East Sussex highlighted that without access to NHS dentistry “people will experience long term oral health problems, resulting in reduced quality of life for patients and to more expensive treatments being needed later in life."

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