Allow assistant dentists to do check-ups to solve crisis, think tank urges

A new report by Onward suggested that dental therapists should move away from its dentist-led model as research suggests half of all adults and children fail to see a dentist as often as the NHS recommends.

“More Smiles” written by the think tank’s chief economist, Tim Leunig, the inventor of the furlough scheme used during the pandemic, called for the system to be “liberalised” to improve dental care.

Analysis by Onward found that in Richmondshire, which covers the Prime Minister’s constituency of Richmond, only 26 per cent of adults visit a local dentist, the lowest proportion of anywhere in Yorkshire.

The think tank recommended that dental therapists would be able to run independent practices and employ hygienists to scale and polish teeth, while patients would only need to be referred to a dentist for more complex treatments such as tooth extractions or straightening.

It suggested that a changed approach to dental training could see the Government double the number of dental therapists in training, and be half the cost of training a fully-qualified dentist.

This would involve dentistry students to do a three-year university course to become dental therapists, able to opt out after two years as a qualified hygienist, or extend for another two years to become a dentist.

Onward said that over time this would help double the number of NHS dentist appointments available.

Tim Leunig, Onward’s chief economist, said: "We need to liberalise dentistry to help more people see a dentist and stay healthy.

“For routine check-ups and procedures, there's no need to see a fully qualified dentist instead of a dental therapist or hygienist. It's like insisting on having a doctor on a pharmacy's front desk.

"The Government can create many more NHS appointments by letting dental therapists run practices and deliver the care they're trained for, while keeping dentists focused on more complex treatment.

It wouldn't mean sacrificing the quality of care patients expect but enabling more people to receive the dental attention they deserve.

"At the same time, they can double the number of people training to deliver this dental care at no extra cost to the taxpayer.”

It comes after Dame Andrea Jenkyns, the Yorkshire MP and former minister, urged the Government to sort out the situation in dental care.

She told MPs last month: “Last week a constituent contacted me – her teeth crumbled during pregnancy and she was unable to get a dentist appointment.

“Another constituent in agony, desperately pleaded for help to find a dentist. My own son, Clifford, has been waiting two years for a tooth extraction, hundreds of emails I’ve received similar.

“This is simply not good enough.”

Health minister Dame Andrea Leadsom said hundreds of thousands of new NHS patients are being seen as a result of the Government’s dentistry recovery plan.

The plan aims to provide patients with the details of which local dentists are accepting new NHS patients at the touch of a button, in addition to paying dentists more for their NHS work.

The health minister replied: “We know that since all dentists were locked down during Covid, the recovery to access NHS care has not been as fast as we would like, that’s why we announced our dentistry recovery plan.

“Including a new patient premium, which has already seen hundreds of thousands of new NHS patients who’ve not seen a dentist in two years.”

Later in the session, Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting questioned the Government’s ability to deliver on its goal of an extra 2.5 million dental appointments this year.

“The chief dental officer says the announcement is nowhere near enough, the British Dental Association says the recovery plan is not worthy of the name, won’t stop the exodus of dentists, and won’t meet the Government’s targets,” he said.