Britain is in a national crisis, dentists warn

BRITAIN is forced to turn to charities from the developing world amid a dentistry crisis, 1,000 dentists claim today.

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, dentists said they were being swamped by red tape and targets, without time or resources to prevent tooth decay, with care so poor that charities from abroad were stepping in to provide aid.

The signatories warned of a “national health disaster” and that Britain’s systems had become “an international disgrace”.

Dentists said they are struggling in a system that is “under-resourced and focused more on experimental targets and tickboxes than patients”. An NHS England spokesman said: “A recent survey of patients showed that when people need an NHS dentist appointment, they are almost always able to get one, and that nearly nine times out of 10 their experience is positive.”

SIR – This is the fifth year that dental professionals have written to The Daily Telegraph, raising serious concerns about the central supervised neglect of dentistry, in England particularly, but also across the whole United Kingdom.

Good dental people are struggling in bad central systems that are limited, under-resourced and focused more upon experimental targets and tickboxes than upon patients.

Not only do rotten teeth remain as the number-one medical reason for any young child being admitted to hospital, but Third-world based dental charities are expanding here and large American charities are looking to come to Britain, as our inadequate dental systems (now an international disgrace) attract worldwide sympathy.

The Government remains unengaged, stuck in spin and denial, tinkering at the edges instead of grasping the real issues; there is no national media campaign for dentaldisease prevention; NHS dentistry faces continual clawbacks instead of hi-tech investment; private dentistry faces increasing amounts of red tape while trying to prop up the failing NHS, too. Hospitals are swamped with dental referrals that they cannot treat, so bounce them back. There is an almost complete lack of appreciation of the harmful impact that dental diseases and infections have upon general health and morbidity.

In short, this is now a national health disaster, not just a dental one, which will go down in history as an undeniable failure of central mismanagement.

Please remember in future years that we told you so publicly. We did our duty repeatedly, but we are largely ignored, to the detriment of the many vulnerable today.

Tony Kilcoyne

Specialist in Prosthodontics Tony V Jacobs Dentist and founder of GDPUK Martin Mayhew

Specialist in Dental Public Health and 407 others; see telegraph.co.uk