Dentistry Services - Parliamentary Inquiry | Healthwatch Lincolnshire

Dentistry Services - Parliamentary Inquiry

The state of dentistry in England is cause for public concern and the Committee is launching an inquiry into dentistry services.
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The state of dentistry in England is cause for public concern and the Committee is launching an inquiry into dentistry services.

Dentistry has been a part of the NHS since its inception in 1948. In 1951, charges for dentures, the first charges of any kind for NHS treatment, were introduced. Other charges were later introduced for dental services.

The Government is currently testing prototypes for a new dental contract with an emphasis on prevention.  

As part of this inquiry Healthwatch Lincolnshire provided local evidence particularly to raise concerns in relation to patients accessing NHS dentistry in Lincolnshire.

Due to a number of closures of NHS dental service in Lincolnshire, from 2017 Healthwatch Lincolnshire has experienced a significant increase in the number of patients contacting us with their problems and concerns about accessing NHS dentistry services.  In fact, with 484 individual patient’s experiences shared with Healthwatch Lincolnshire since January 2017, NHS dentistry is one of the largest individual NHS services patients have comment about to our service.  

For more information

Dental Services Inquiry