Dental Schools Offer Unaffordable Solutions to the Access Crisis
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- Published: Monday, 02 June 2025 17:30
- Written by Peter Ingle
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The Dental Schools Council (DSC), represents the UK‘s dental schools.
June 2nd 2025 sees the publication of their report "Fixing NHS Dentistry." The report, which is endorsed by all UK dental schools, outlines key recommendations to deal with the current access crisis.
It is an unusual document, brief at just 12 pages, and with no named authors. However it comes from the organisation that describes itself as: “The authoritative voice of the dental schools within universities across the United Kingdom and Ireland.”
In the DSC’s analysis, major current problems include;
- Insufficient dental professionals of all types to meet patient demand for NHS oral healthcare.
- Regional variation in numbers of applicants to study dentistry and dental therapy coupled with graduate’s reluctance to work in under provided areas.
- That Dental Hygiene and Dental Therapy clinical placements receive 10 times less funding support than Dentistry. This according to the DSC makes such programmes financially non viable for universities, and as a result Dental Therapy programmes are closing across the UK.
- Attrition of clinical academics, as more retire than are replaced. This puts the ability to train future generations of oral healthcare practitioners and researchers at risk.
- Poor access to NHS dentistry leads to preventable health issues which have economic impacts with an estimated 1.2 million lost workdays per year.
- Ineffective use of the diverse and cost-effective skill sets of dental professionals including dental nurses, dental hygienists and dental therapists.
- A lack of incentives for dental hygienists and dental therapists to join and stay within the NHS workforce, with limited job opportunities, inequitable payment structures, and restricted access to pension benefits highlighted as barriers.
The DSC solution may look familiar. It includes;
- Better incentives for dentists to work in the NHS. The DSC helpfully point out that “This can only be solved by the Government.”
- Government is also told that it must define and commit to new training numbers in all four nations and expand Dentistry and Dental Hygiene and Dental Therapy places in England.
- There needs to be a fix for clinical placement funding, to make training viable for Dental Hygiene and Dental Therapy.
- Regional training hubs should be established in dental deserts.
- Investment is needed in clinical academic careers.
Those concerned about standards may not be surprised to see the reports states that “Investment is also required in capital funding to support uplift in training rather than increase in current establishments where the only option leads to diluting quality of training.”
The report appears to look positively upon the model of the Physician Associate (PA). It says that that the NHS has “demonstrated its commitment to equity by integrating other allied health professionals, such as PA’s into its workforce and offering them financial incentives. However, comparable recognition and support have not yet been extended to dental careers—raising concerns about equity across healthcare professions.”
Dental Nurse training is not entirely forgotten with a plea that workforce planning has a “balanced pipeline” across all Dental Care Professional groups to support team-based care.
A pivot to skill mix is reflected in the Summary of Recommendations which provides a table of “key stakeholders.” While the BADN, BADT and BSDHT are frequently listed, the BDA are not included.
Unsurprisingly, given the reports source, in the press release accompanying its publication the DSC lead with, “Dental schools urge government action to expand training places amidst workforce crisis” and they call upon the Government to urgently commit to expanding dental training places to address the UK’s escalating oral healthcare crisis.
Later, the DSC address the NHS dental contract, but in somewhat less emphatic language, saying that “Government should consider reforms” to the current contract.
Reading the report it is clear that the Dental Schools, or at least the DSC, see their role in terms of providing NHS workforce, rather than training dental professionals. It notes with concern, the increased proportion of private majority and private-only workers, as highlighted by the GDC, as a threat to universal patient access. “Dental schools do not advertise private dentistry careers and neither should other public and dental staff facing media.”
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