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Official figures show there were 23,733 dental practitioners in 2021 – 951 fewer than the previous year, leaving more patients struggling to get the dental care they need.
Worst hit was London with 4,179 dentists, down 369, the South-east with 4,136, a fall of 306, and the Midlands with 4,341, down 208.
There were 174 fewer NHS dentists in the East of England, 137 fewer in the North-west, 116 in the North-east andYorkshire and 104 in the South-west.
Some NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups were more affected than others.
For example, north-west London saw the number of dentists drop by 141, Surrey Heartlands by 84 and Birmingham and Solihull by 62.
The data was revealed in response to a parliamentary question by Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, whose Kingston and Surbiton constituency is covered by the clinical commissioning group for south-west London, which lost 91 dentists.
“The lack of NHS dentists across the country is a real crisis for people,” he said. “As well as being unable to sort out dental pain in the short term, people are storing up problems for the future without regular check-ups.” The British Dental
Association said dentists had left the NHS due to its failure to reward their commitment for more than a decade. Its chair, Eddie Crouch, said it will be made worse by rules brought in on January 1 to accelerate recovery from the pandemic, which mean NHS practices are obliged to meet 85 per cent of their pre-Covid activity levels or face financial penalties.
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Two-thirds fear they will not be able to reach the target.
Mr Crouch said: “Even before Covid, a growing number of dentists couldn’t see a future for themselves in a service plagued by failed contracts and underfunding.
“That trickle is now set to become a flood.
“For over a decade dentists have worked to a broken system that has failed to recognise and reward commitment to the NHS. Now they are being punished for it.” ” He added: “Imposing fanciful targets in the middle of the Omicron wave could be thefinal nail in the coffin.”
Last year the British Dental Association, Healthwatch England and cross-party MPs warned NHS dentistry is facing its worst crisis with some patients facing a three-year wait for routine check-ups.They called for more funding to clear the backlog and rebuild NHS dental services.
The Department of Health has been approached for comment.
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