Universal NHS dentistry has been "lost," according to new research showing that 608 dental practices in England have stopped seeing NHS patients since March 2017. The analysis, conducted for the Mirror's Dentists for All campaign, reveals that one in ten practices have abandoned their NHS contracts, including 135 since 2024.
Nuffield Trust study highlights two-tier service
The Nuffield Trust's study, described as the most comprehensive of the decade-long oral health crisis, concludes: "NHS dental care is hard to find in England, if not impossible." The report notes that the retreat of NHS dentistry was never a single decision but a gradual process as practices chose to go private.
Mark Dayan, policy analyst at the Nuffield Trust, said: "The loss of universal care happened through practices deciding for themselves that NHS work is no longer worth doing." He added: "A contract handed back in one town attracts little national attention on its own but repeated across the country for a decade, it amounts to the quiet transformation of dentistry into a two-tier service."
Decline in registered NHS dentists
The number of registered NHS dentists in England has fallen from 6,262 in March 2017 to 5,654 by March 2026. The share of practices offering NHS general dental services has dropped from 64.6% to 55.6%, even as the total number of practices increased by over 400 to 10,160.
The South West and East of England have seen the most practices hand back NHS contracts, with the report stating: "This is not a shortage of dentistry so much as a shortage of NHS dentistry."
Patient and dentist accounts
Mike Wood, an 84-year-old pensioner from Blackpool, told the Mirror he has "a mouth full of gaps" and lives in chronic pain after 11 years without an NHS dentist. He said: "If I could afford to go private I could get it all sorted straight away but I can't because I'm a pensioner."
Jim Sykes, a former NHS dentist in Hexham, North East, handed back his contract in October 2024 after struggling to make it financially viable. He said: "I believe strongly that everyone should have access to NHS dentistry, and giving up our NHS contract was one of the hardest decisions we've ever had to make."
Funding and polling
NHS dental funding remained around £3 billion for over a decade under Conservative governments, with the proportion of the NHS budget spent on dentistry falling from 3.3% in 2010 to 1.5% in 2024. Labour increased the budget to £3.5bn for 2024/25, but the British Dental Association says an extra £1.5 billion a year is needed for fundamental contract reform.
Polling by Survation for 38 Degrees shows 68% of the public support fixing NHS dentistry through extra funding, with just 10% opposed. Shiv Pabary, chair of the BDA's general dental practice committee, said: "A new team at the Department of Health need to grasp that if they fail to fix and fund NHS dentistry, dentists will have no choice but to walk away."
The government points to 1.8 million extra courses of dental treatment between April and October 2025. A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said: "We are changing the NHS dental contract to make NHS dentistry more sustainable and are training more dentists in areas where they are most needed."
