Britain's dental crisis is pushing hundreds of thousands of patients into hospital emergency departments, with tooth decay now the leading cause of NHS hospital admissions for children aged five to 17 in England. Between April 2022 and May 2023, more than 30,000 children and 70,000 adults were admitted to A&E with tooth decay, according to figures cited by health leaders.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “Accident and emergency departments are overflowing with people in severe dental distress.” The problem is compounded by vast “dental deserts” across the UK, where no dentists are accepting new NHS patients, including Devon, Cornwall, Norfolk, Cumbria and much of Wales.
Lucy, a mother of two from Devon, told how her family cannot access an NHS dentist. She paid £400 to have a tooth pulled because a filling would have cost £500, which she could not justify. “My children not having a dentist really worries me,” she said. “I nag them a lot to brush their teeth. What’s the alternative?”
Paul, admitted to Exeter A&E in 2022 with an infected impacted molar, spent five hours in agony before being operated on under general anaesthetic. He later discovered his dental practice had closed and no others in his area were taking NHS patients. An elderly woman who knocked her tooth half out was also forced to wait four hours in A&E after her surgery shut during the pandemic.
A 2023 survey found nearly four in five school nurses and dentists reported higher rates of tooth decay. Meanwhile, oral cancer, often detected during routine checkups, has risen by 46% over the past decade. Danny Smith, 43, who suffers from lupus-related dental pain, said he dreams of pulling his teeth out and has researched pliers online after being removed from his NHS dentist’s list during the pandemic.
With 90% of UK dentists not taking on new NHS adult patients, according to the BBC and the British Dental Association, and many refusing to see children unless a parent registers privately, patients are left with no choice but to seek urgent care in overstretched hospitals.
