Some Places in England are Four Times More Likely to Visit their Dentist than Others
New shocking statistics have revealed the disparity between different areas, as some places are as much as four times more likely to visit the dentist than others.
84 percent of adults who live in an area catered for by Norwich Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) have had a dental check-up within the last two years, which starkly contrasts the mere 18 percent of adults living in the North & West Reading CCG who have had a check-up with the dentist.
Dental professionals urge patients to visit their dentist at least every six months, with more frequent check-ups needed for different patients.
Overall, only half of the English adult population was found to have seen the dentist within the last two years, a cause for alarm for dental professionals, as was the mammoth apparent disparity between certain areas and others. One CCG region having 84 percent and another 18 percent is a huge difference, although in practice the latter is more an aberration, with the four regions other than North & West Reading CCG having at least 30% of their population having had check-ups. This is still an alarming figure but not quite as huge a change as the range would suggest.
Wimpole Street Dental’s Dr Richard Marques has suggested that there is a mix of factors causing this results, including issues of dentist availability in certain regions and the stability of a population in a given area. If more people and employers regularly move in and out of the area, that change could lead to the lack of stability that would affect a patient’s ability to find a dentist.
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