Deji Olayinka, South West London Socialist Party
Struggling to get an NHS dentist? You’re not the only one. More than 300 people queued to register with an NHS dentist in Kings Lynn, Norfolk. Many had been queueing from 4am to snap up the first new NHS patient spaces in the area for three years. Norfolk has been described as a “dental desert”, but it is just one example of Britain’s dental crisis.
An inquiry into NHS dentistry found that 9 in 10 NHS dental practices across the UK were not accepting new adult patients for treatment. Across a third of the council areas, no dentists were taking on adult NHS patients, and 8 in 10 NHS practices were not taking on children.
This has contributed to the disastrous situation where more than 6.5 million children in England have not seen an NHS dentist for at least a year, an increase of a third since 2019. While adults should visit every two years, under 18s should see the dentist at least once a year because their teeth can decay faster. Despite the importance of early dental care for children, one child in Sheffield waited for dental treatment for over two and a half years.
The British Dental Association described the 300-person queue in King’s Lynn as “belonging in the Soviet bloc”, yet these issues are a consequence of the ongoing privatisation and defunding of NHS services under capitalism.
In 2006 the Labour government changed the contract with dentists so there’s a cap on the number of NHS patients they get paid to see. This has made being an NHS dentist financially unviable and led to a broken system where, despite their being more qualified dentists than ever, the number doing NHS work has fallen significantly.
A recent poll showed that 75% of NHS dentists are considering early retirement, changing careers or going fully private. While MPs have suggested a new dentistry school in Norfolk could help improve the situation, there’s little hope that new graduates with massive student loans will want to fill the gaps in the NHS. Even reverting back to the pre-2006 dentistry model would leave many people still putting off dental visits out of fear of the costs.
A woman in neighbouring Suffolk recently made the news by crowdfunding her dentures. She had resorted to pulling her own teeth, unable to afford treatment.
We need a fully funded and nationalised NHS dental service with completely free service and prescriptions.
