Dental crisis deepens in Cambridgeshire, as dentist numbers fall
Access to dental services in Cambridgeshire is a subject of growing concern, as statistics suggest that dentist numbers have fallen in the last year.
Figures from the NHS show that there has been a fall in the number of dentists offering treatment in England for the first time in four years. Nationally, there are 951 fewer dentists working in England in 2020/2021. In Cambridgeshire, the number of dentists has fallen by 40 in the last year.
The pandemic has contributed to an increase in dentists going private, changing careers or retiring, but dental access issues are long-standing in Cambridgeshire. The BDA suggests that lockdowns and restrictions have exacerbated the situation, rather than causing it and called for urgent action to support practices.
Recent statistics from NHS Digital also show that there was a drastic decrease in the number of patients receiving NHS treatment in 2020/2021 compared to 2019/2020. The number of courses of treatment provided for patients in the county fell by 68% from 431,000 in 2019/2020 to 138,000 between June 2020 and March 2021.
During the first lockdown, practices shut and patients were only able to access emergency dental treatment via a network of NHS urgent dental care hubs. When clinics reopened in June 2020, they reduced capacity significantly to comply with social distancing and infection control measures. As a result, millions of appointments were cancelled, and teams are still working through backlogs.
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