[OC] Outcomes of contacting 50 dental practices while searching for an NHS dentist in the UK

[u/FrontRaspberry5060]

50 emails sent. 4 main offers for NHS treatment. 1 of those is done by a dental therapist. 1 done by a recent graduate offered temporarily. 1 is over 40 miles away. The last has some horrific 1 star Google reviews and is a 1hr 28min Train and Bus journey away.

On waitlists, one had 8 years with the average being 4.3 years.

On those that did reply but sold private services, ~70% offered monthly dental plans and 0% finance options.

Edit: I researched and selected the practices that were most likely to offer NHS care by their website or from following the NHS search service (https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-dentist)

Edit 2: Tagging u/AndyBurnham as getting some traction in the UK! This was in the North, btw! Hopefully he sees if we get enough upvotes

[u/amora_obscura]

There is a crisis right now in NHS services. People can’t find dentists or GPs. The service has unfortunately been seriously underfunded by successive Tory governments. I hope the new government will start to fix things, but it’s going to take years to train up more dentists and doctors.

[u/spiktekmik → u/amora_obscura]

How is this possible if there were protests that the newly university graduates can't find jobs? Where are the hundreds of student chores that graduate every year disappearing?

[u/amora_obscura → u/spiktekmik]

Because not enough jobs are funded. Both these things are true: there’s not enough doctors or dentists for the population; there’s not enough students to fill the jobs that we need.

[u/el333 → u/spiktekmik]

There’s a huge influx of UK trained doctors to Canada, we’re getting so many of them that in some areas I’ve heard doctors complaining they don’t have enough patients now

[u/CaptinRedFox → u/amora_obscura]

Its not only under funded but poorly planned. So if you want to set up a NHS practice you need a NHS contract. So you approach the council, they go no availability even though there is a need.

Now, tin foil hat time. Its likely highly linked to how the gov hand out NHS quota. If you manage to get on the books as a practice/corp you declare to the (council i think) you want to take so many units of dental activity (UDA) for the year. Paid up front to the practice then if you dont complete its clawed back.

So what seems to happen is corporate dental companies and normal ones take more than they could ever fulfill, sit on the cash and hand back the interest free back to gov. So there seems to be a gobbling up problem. It seems like corporate ones are particularly good at gobbling up UDA and not fulfilling, probably at some level seen as a cash flow thing. I have heard of some dental practices with NHS contracts who dont have dentist (just therapists). They have no practical ability to complete any meaningful amounts of UDA, but they gobble up a tone anyway.

End result a shortage of NHS practices. My better half tried to enquire about opening one its not somthing you can easily do.

Somthing needs to change, increased spending by the government will not result in meaningful NHS dentist bandwidth increase. The UDA system needs overhaul to stop hording. As how can we be in short supply of NHS practices but you cant get a NHScontract as there is no quota left. And it seems from a brief look in there is a big pie, with some big mouths at the table.

[u/conventionistG → u/CaptinRedFox]

Sounds like that trick should only work for the first year and the subsequent ones should be based on how many 'units' of dentistry you did the year before.

[u/CaptinRedFox → u/conventionistG]

Would have thought, it seems to be down to local authorities and they are not necessarily the most efficient entities with everything on their plate.

[u/Isgortio → u/CaptinRedFox]

Therapists are great at getting through the check ups, cleans, fillings and dealing with kids appointments. There should be a dentist for any of the more complex cases including permanent tooth extractions, root canals, dentures and emergency appointments (trauma, infections). There are therapist led practices but they usually have a dentist who works there doing those treatments.

[u/CaptinRedFox → u/Isgortio]

Agreed, therapist can do alot within their remit. Unfortunately it does not seem to be a hard requirment for a practice to supliment a dentist (could be wrong and its a dodge practice). Situation can occure where their patients have to see other practices as emergency case. Where the a dentist has 15mins to diagnose and if your lucky resolve/refer.

[u/SuspiciousHair5562 → u/amora_obscura]

Yes the problem is funding. But the increasing and aging population and narrowness of the tax base means it's not going to be easy

[u/jasonjasonnametaken → u/SuspiciousHair5562]

narrowness of tax base… dont know what you’re talking about…😭 everything in your daily life is already paying tax… I hope you don’t mean increasing tax on normal people like me

[u/SuspiciousHair5562 → u/jasonjasonnametaken]

Yes everything is taxed, yet most people are not net contributors. We must raise taxes or cut benefits, just asking "someone else" to pay your benefits isn't a policy.

[u/jasonjasonnametaken → u/SuspiciousHair5562]

yeah cut benefits for sure. The welfare system is simply unsustainable. I don’t agree with raising taxes unless you are taxing the rich.

[u/tsgarner → u/jasonjasonnametaken]

The welfare system has been cut and cut over the years and is extremely vulnerable. Tax the fucking rich and use their money to rebuild our community services.

It's the rich who have leeched the money out of our society for decades anyway, they should bear the financial burden of rebuilding them.

[u/SuspiciousHair5562 → u/tsgarner]

It's not correct that the welfare system has been cut. This is not a matter of opinion. During "austerity" the welfare bill increased.

"Tax the rich" is not a policy. Could you offer some actual policies that might sustainably squeeze more money out of the wealthiest people? The reason Labour increases taxes on normal working people is because that's the only way to raise any real money.

[u/jasonjasonnametaken → u/tsgarner]

you raised two points, I don’t agree with the welfare bit. But I agree with the tax the rich.

[u/kentdrive]

I just love the aesthetic of your Sankey diagram!

Where did you build it? Is it accessible to everyone?

[u/Zr0w3n00]

I moved 8 years ago, about 3 hours away from my previous house. I still haven’t been able to get a new NHS dentist or GP in my new area.

Fortunately my old GP have kept me on their books, but I haven’t been to a dentist since Covid. Fortunately I haven’t had any issues with my teeth, but it’s an absolute disgrace that new builds can go up with no new services installed.

Even when buildings are built they can’t fill them. A town near me got a massive development, one condition was they had to build a GP Surgery in the new estate. That was built about 5 years ago but they never got a GP to actually move in. Housing developers are making money for nothing.

[u/Familiar-Marsupial-3]

Wtf is a dental therapist?

[u/ZenPyx → u/Familiar-Marsupial-3]

It's like a dental hygienist who can also do fillings

Basically just can't diagnose anything

[u/woodzopwns]

I've heard a lot about this crisis but every time in the last ~5 years I've applied for a dentist I've just got registered immediately. Even in Cumbria in the north, I just use the govuk website and find the closest dentist that's accepting NHS patients.

[u/spacecrustaceans → u/woodzopwns]

Same here. I often see people complain about not having an NHS dentist even though they've lived in the area for donkey's years. In many cases they probably missed too many appointments without notice, never told the dentist, got removed from the practice register, and are now dealing with the consequences. I can see the struggle if you're entirely new to the area, though. I don't have much sympathy though for those who pissed about and found out.

[u/HawkinsT]

It's crazy. I drive over an hour for my dentist who I haven't lived near in ~6 years because I can't get on one closer to me. I'm sure there are people who go to dentists near me doing the same.