‘I’m spending hundreds on my teeth because I can’t find an NHS dentist’
Retired pub landlord Thomas Mein, 67, said he had been left unable to eat on one side of his mouth because he could not find an NHS dentist to look at a problem with his teeth after he moved to the East Riding of Yorkshire last year.
“I have been trying to get a place, but everywhere is telling me they either have nothing or I will have to wait for at least two years, with waiting lists 600 people long. I have a crown issue and it is very sensitive,” he said.
“I’ve paid my taxes all my life, but it seems private care is my only option.”
The situation is expected to worsen as an “urgent staffing crisis” creates shortages across the board and a “postcode lottery” for patients, according to the Conservative Dentists group, a lobby organisation.
Availability of dentists varies widely across the country: north Lincolnshire has the lowest, at 32 dentists per 100,000 people, compared with the average of 42 across England in 2020‑21, according to the NHS. The highest ratio was in South Tyneside, at 77 dentists.
Private dental care is vastly more expensive than NHS treatment. Patients will pay up to £5,000 for a brace, for example, £500 for dentures, £400 for root canal work and £200 for wisdom tooth extraction, depending on the clinic.
NHS treatments fall into price bands of £23.80, £65.20 and £282.80. Treatments in the first band include check-ups, adjustments and polishes. Fillings, transplants and extractions are in the second, while the third is reserved for treatments such as the fitting of dentures, crowns and bridges. There is also a fourth band for emergency treatment, with urgently required care costs limited to £23.80.
A spokesman for the NHS said it had taken “unprecedented action” to support dentists. He added that the health service had provided £50m in support for patients with urgent care needs in January, as well as income protection for practices “unable to deliver their usual levels of activity”.
