New NHS Dental Statistics Published
The results of an NHS dental patient survey have been published.
The survey relates to the period of time between July and September this year and is centred on access to NHS dental care. A total of 1.4 million adults were invited to take part in the survey and 475,000 replies were received.
The survey revealed that 60 per cent of participants tried to make a dental appointment with an NHS dentist in the last two years and 94 per cent were able to successfully make an appointment. Of those who tried to make an appointment without success, most people were visiting a practice for the first time and the survey showed that younger people and people from ethnic minorities were more likely to encounter difficulties trying to see a dentist.
Of the respondents who managed to see their dentist within the last 48 hours, more than 80 per cent said that there appointment had been a success; 48 per cent said that their experience was ‘very good’ and 36 per cent said that their experience was only ‘fairly good’.
Around 40 per cent of people said that they had not tried to arrange an appointment in the last two years; 18 per cent of people said that they had tried to make an appointment, but it was more than two years ago and 22 per cent of people said that they did not need a dental examination.
Around 14 per cent of those who said that they did not try to make an appointment with an NHS dentist said that they didn’t think that they would be able to see an NHS dentist.
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