Hundreds of people resorted to attending Accident & Emergency in Bath with tooth decay because they couldn’t see an NHS dentist, new research suggests.
Nearly 260 people with tooth decay were treated at the Royal United Hospital last year, with West of England Metro Mayor Dan Norris attributing the numbers to the “disturbing decline” of NHS dentistry.
In 2022-23, 200 people were seen with a dental abscess, caused by decay, and 55 with dental caries.
Approximately 4.75 million people were unable to get an appointment with an NHS dentist in the past two years, owing to a lack of availability or capacity for new patients at their chosen practice.
Previous research has shown that the Bath area is a ‘dentistry desert’.
Mayor Norris has urged Government ministers to adopt Labour’s plan to provide an extra 700,000 urgent dentist appointments and reform the NHS dental contract, as part of a package of measures to rescue NHS dentistry.
He said: “The severe dentist shortage is a terrible situation for local people waiting in pain, bad for our already stretched hospitals and has knock-on effects across our economy as people take days off sick.
“Time and again people tell me they just can’t get an NHS dentist. It’s simply impossible. I fear the way the Tories have run down NHS dentistry points to what they want to do to our NHS.
“Ministers must urgently fix this crisis, including addressing the lack of dentists and other dentistry healthcare staff, and do what was promised a decade ago and sort out the broken NHS contract system once and for all.
“If that means copying Labour’s plans then I’d be delighted.”