Dental emergency

sir – For several years we have been warning of dentistry’s woes in England. Covid-19 has put further pressures and restrictions on dental care in this country.

Tooth decay in children was already the chief cause of child hospitalisation before the pandemic. Since the start of the Covid outbreak, some 19 million dental appointments have been missed. Pain, suffering and tooth loss will only increase without serious additional dental investment and a proper national dental disease prevention strategy.

However, instead of extra investment, punitive unit of dental activity (UDA) targets have been forced upon NHS dental teams from this month, which threaten fines and funding clawbacks in March, and put future NHS provision at risk.

Private dentistry has stepped up valiantly during the pandemic to help with the increase in dental problems, but has had almost no central help, funding or resources, and thus dentists are taking out additional loans just to survive.

The NHS and the private sector provide essential dental services in synergy, so we urge the public and professionals to contact their MPS – lobby them to take part in the parliamentary debate on the effect of Covid-19 on dental services on January 14, and write to Jo Churchill, the minister for prevention, public health and primary care, expressing these serious concerns about our worsening dental tragedy.

Tony Kilcoyne

Specialist in prosthodontics

Nisha Patel

Family dentist

Tony Jacobs

Founder, GDPUK and 556 others; see telegraph.co.uk