Only one fifth of patients who tried to get an NHS dental appointment in the last month were successful, a new government survey found.
Around half of those surveyed (53.2%) used NHS dental services. A further 35.6% used private dental services, while 10.9% said they did not have a dentist.
According to the Health Insight Survey, the youngest age group (16- to 24-year-olds) had the highest rates of NHS care at 70.9%, compared to 45.3% in over 75s.
Geography also seemed to impact use of NHS services. While only 38.5% of people saw an NHS dentist in the south west of England, the figure was 60.4% in the north west. The most deprived areas had the highest proportion of people with no dentist (17.8%), which dropped to 9.5% in the least deprived areas.
Another factor that affected usage of NHS dentistry was race. Just 5% of white people had not seen any dentist in the past two years. However the number was higher in Black people (12.1%), Asian people (10.5%) and people from other ethnic groups (15.4%).
High satisfaction, low access
Of those who had tried to get an NHS appointment in the last 28 days, 20.5% were successful and 79.5% were unsuccessful. While 6.9% of the patients who could not get an NHS appointment saw a private dentist, 81.4% received no care at all.
Women were more likely to receive no care at 90.3% compared to 72.1% of men. Every patient in the 25 to 34 age group received no care when they failed to get an NHS appointment, as opposed to 68.2% in the over-75 group.
This data was collected as part of the Experiences of NHS healthcare services in England survey by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Another recent survey found that only one in five people are satisfied with the way that NHS dentistry is run. However, of those who were successful in finding an NHS appointment in the ONS survey, 89.5% were satisfied with their care.
Dan Wellings, a senior fellow at The King’s Fund, suggested that the overall dissatisfaction may be due to access issues. He said: ‘The latest results lay bare the extent of the problems faced by the NHS and the size of the challenge for the government. While the results are sobering, they should not be surprising. For too many people the NHS has become difficult to access: how can you be satisfied with a service you can’t get into?’
Follow Dentistry.co.uk on Instagram to keep up with all the latest dental news and trends.
