LGA analysis has shown, there are significant numbers of dental deserts across the country, with many people lacking access to affordable dental care.
Responding to a government plan to improve access to NHS dental care, Cllr David Fothergill, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board said:
“As previous LGA analysis has shown, there are significant numbers of dental deserts across the country, with many people lacking access to affordable dental care. These shortages are most severe in rural and deprived communities.
“Although these changes to dental contracts is a start in tackling the issue, much more can be done to address these shortages.
“The Government should commit to a comprehensive dental workforce strategy as well as providing a real terms increase to councils’ public health grant, so they can provide vital oral health improvement programmes to prevent longer term health problems.”
Notes to editors
Previous LGA analysis found that no area in the country has more than 1 NHS dentist per 1000 of the population. Rural and more deprived areas are more likely to have shortages in NHS dentists than their counterparts, with the top 10 council areas for shortages mainly having higher than average levels of deprivation or higher than average proportion of residents in rural areas.