Lack of NHS dentists forces school to use charity clinic

A SHORTAGE of NHS dentists is forcing schools to call in charities to treat pupils who are crying in pain with tooth decay.

Children at Trinity Academy Grammar, West Yorks, were unable to sleep and concentrate on their work, and some left lessons in tears from the pain.

A lack of local NHS dentists resulted in the school taking pupils to hospital and setting up a mobile dental clinic to treat them.

Dentaid, a charity treating people in developing countries, volunteered at the school and found one in 10 of its students needed treatment, the BBC reported. The charity said it was the first clinic it had run in a school.

Volunteers found pupils had cracked teeth, abscesses and tooth decay.

Since lockdown in England, about 12.5million children’s dental appointments have been lost and hundreds of NHS dentists have left the service.

The British Dentist Association (BDA) said almost 1,000 dentists left the NHS in England last year, and warned more will leave due to pressures.

Charlie Johnson, the Trinity Academy Grammar headmaster, said students were crying in lessons and were missing days because of the pain.

Eddie Crouch, chairman of the BDA, said: “We salute these volunteers, but this isn’t the Victorian era. A wealthy 21st century nation shouldn’t be relying on charities to provide basic healthcare to our children.”

Sarah Hutchins, Dentaid practice manager, told the BBC: “We’ve seen a lot of children with a lot of holes in their teeth and who needed teeth removed.”

The BDA said NHS dentistry is “on its last legs” after no long-term funding was announced. Earlier this year, it was reported one in 10 dentists were quitting

‘A wealthy 21st century nation shouldn’t be relying on charities to provide basic healthcare to our children’

NHS work, with more than 2,000 leaving since the pandemic.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We’ve given the NHS £50million, up to 350,000 extra dental appointments, and we are growing the workforce. In December 2021, there were 264 more dentists registered than the previous year.

“That’s on top of our unprecedented support for NHS dentists during the pandemic, including protecting the incomes of practices which couldn’t deliver all their usual services and tackling the Covid backlog.”