Dental practices in dire need of funding due to cost of treatment

As reported by the BBC, research by the British Dental Association suggests dental practices are suffering losses due to lack of government funding

Preliminary numbers indicate that NHS dental treatments are incurring loss for dentists. In response, dentists have turned to the private sector while others still under the NHS system are no longer accepting new patients.

A 2022 report by the BBC indicated that nine tenth of dentists in the UK were not admitting new patients into their practice.

The British Dental Association (BDA) has announced that the fees provided by the government for treatment are outrun by the cost of giving treatment.

The government pays a practice £19.47 for a tooth extraction but the costs of carrying out the procedure and paying the dentist incurs a loss of £18.58.

“Unless the funding covers the cost to provide care there is no future for NHS dentistry and that means there’s no care for patients who need it the most,” says Ciara Gallagher, chair of the BDA‘s Northern Ireland Dental Practice Committee.

The BDA has stated that they are expanding their study to dental practices across the UK to gather more figures.