Healthwatch England Finds Urgent NHS Dental Care Unreliable, With Patients Resorting to Self-Treatment
Healthwatch England has reported that urgent NHS dental care is not reliably available across England, forcing patients to travel long distances, pay for private treatment, or seek care abroad. Many people in severe dental pain are unable to secure timely appointments; even those registered with an NHS dentist often face months of delay for routine care, leaving urgent care as their only option.
Some patients have resorted to self-treatment, including pulling out their own teeth or taking unprescribed antibiotics. NHS 111 data indicates that dental-related calls during July to September 2025 were approximately 20% higher than the same period in 2024. Mystery shopping exercises in the north-east revealed that up to 15 calls were made with no urgent care available.
Even when patients access urgent treatment, relief tends to be temporary, with prevention neglected, resulting in worsening dental health and financial strain. The government plans to add 700,000 urgent appointments annually through 2028-29, aiming for urgent appointments to be available within 24 hours or seven days depending on symptoms, either through patients' regular dentists or NHS 111.
Healthwatch recommends publishing monthly progress data on this 700,000 appointment target and introducing a legal right to register with an NHS dentist. It also calls for stronger prevention measures, improved patient pathways, and longer-term planning via dental contract reform.
The Department of Health and Social Care acknowledged that the NHS dental system has been neglected but is undergoing reform to increase urgent appointments and revise dental contracts. It stated that more work remains to fully fix the system.
