'I'm a dentist in Yorkshire and I've created the Uber of dental appointment bookings to tackle crisis'

A Yorkshire dentist has created the Uber of booking dental appointments, which aims to show which NHS practices are taking on new patients.

Dr Tristan Tinn, 34, was working as a dentist in Barnsley, and continued to have gaps in his diary despite the pressures on the sector.

“You know from the news that there are plenty of people out there that need your care,” he told The Yorkshire Post.

The British Dental Association’s survey found that 97 per cent of people who try and access NHS dental services in Yorkshire and the Humber fail.

Ukrainian refugees in York have travelled back to their war-torn homeland for dental care, as it is cheaper and quicker.

To tackle this crisis, Dr Tinn has created helpdental.ai to easily show patients where they can get appointments in their local area, through NHS or private care.

The idea is to mirror the simplicity that comes with using a minicab app, like Uber, to book dentists.

“I know from experience working as an NHS dentist that it’s not uncommon for practices to double-book patients, knowing that the rate of people that won’t show up or cancel at the last minute is so high,” Dr Tinn explained.

“These appointments are so fought over and hard to reach, but then the people that do manage to access them sometimes just waste them.

“They often don’t even let the dentist know the cancellation is coming.

“If you can build a system that links the people that are desperately trying to get an appointment and doing all this phone tag, with the practices that suddenly have last minute availability then you’re winning.”

Comparing this to an app like Uber, he explained: “If you order an Uber and decide to cancel it, the driver doesn’t just wait around for an hour - he matches up with the next customer.

“I want to build the front door for dentistry in the UK to make those matches. It exists in the US and Canada, so why not here?”

Dr Tinn’s database shows availability at both NHS and private dentists, and allows patients to quickly book a slot in.

He says this will build up and become more accurate as more practices get involved.

In the private sector, he hopes that it will provide more transparency around pricing.

“The perception of private dentistry is that it’s more out of reach and less affordable than it actually is,” Dr Tinn said.

“First and foremost, Help Dental is just building transparency around that so that patients can understand that what they need is actually straight forward and actually affordable.”

This comes after Chancellor Rachel Reeves called for the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate the private dental sector.

Citing concerns about hidden costs, overtreatment and lack of information for patients, Ms Reeves also pointed to reports that some practices had offered to take children on as NHS patients only if their parents signed up privately.

Healthwatch York has previously told this paper that this illegal practice goes on across the region.