Retail park dental clinic bid
A COMPANY wants to open a new dental clinic on an industrial site in Port Talbot.
Aegon Asset Management has submitted plans to create a dental clinic at Baglan Bay Retail Park, Christchurch Road, Port Talbot.
The British Dental Association (BDA) says areas with higher levels of deprivation, like Port Talbot, are more likely to suffer from poor dental hygiene/health.
Children in the Hywel Dda health board region are almost three times more likely to undergo tooth extraction under general anaesthetic as those in Powys, a more affluent area, according to the association.
Almost two million dental treatments were lost in Wales in 2020/21 with huge backlogs of appointments building up in lockdown, according to the BDA.
Aegon has already found a potential company to run the dental clinic and would undertake a lease agreement with it if the plans are approved by Neath Port Talbot Council.
The proposed development site is 467sq m in size and located at Unit 3, which is currently occupied by furniture company Dreams. A report by ROK Planning on behalf of Aegon states the other businesses in the park would not be affected by the dental clinic nor would the outside of the building be altered. It also states the noise levels created by the business would be “equivalent to the noise levels of normal conversation and a hair dryer”.
According to ROK Planning, the new clinic would not create “unacceptable levels of traffic” and parking near the site would remain as it is, with 112 spaces.
The BDA estimates NHS dental services are operating at over a fifth of normal levels and claims the pandemic has worsened health inequality due to limited access to services.
Russell Gidney, chair of the BDA’S Welsh General Dental Practice Committee, said: “Families across Wales have seen what life is like without dentistry, and the impact could be felt for years to come.
“The sad fact is that the real progress we’ve made on tackling unacceptable health inequalities now risks going into reverse. NHS Dentistry was in crisis long before Covid. We have started down the right path, but the next Senedd must go further. Oral health is not a nice thing to have or an optional extra. Wales now has the chance to break with the past, and rebuild a service millions depend on with prevention at its heart.”
Research published by the BDA in 2019 found access for new patients to dental services to be at an “all time low” in Wales. On average, only 15% of Welsh NHS practices were accepting new adult patients in 2017-18 while 21% of all practices had waiting lists.
The association is urging Senedd members to address oral health inequality by investing in public health programmes and addressing staffing issues in poor rural areas.
The application for the clinic expires on April 13.