Are NHS dentists becoming extinct?

NHS dentistry will be a thing of the past by 2025 unless there are radical reforms to funding.

- Lucy Johnston

This stark warning from the chairman of the British Dental Association came as new figures reveal as many as nine in 10 dental practices are now refusing new adult NHS patients for treatment.

It has also emerged that one in 10 local authorities are no longer accepting under-16s for NHS treatment.

The figures are part of a dossier being collated by the BDA to be submitted to a Health and Social Care Committee inquiry into dentistry launched last month.

BDA chair Eddie Crouch has held urgent talks with dental minister Neil O’Brien to demand funding reforms.

The lack of NHS appointments has seen people drive hundreds of miles in search of treatment.