Government reforms to Britain's decaying dental industry will be 'modest and marginal fixes' at best, warn British Dental Association

Shawn Charlwood, chairman of the British Dental Association’s general dental practice committee, warned a failed contract to fund NHS dental care had left to thousands leaving the industry.

Reacting to health minister Maria Caulfield’s comments that reforms were on the way in the summer, Mr Charlwood said: ‘A dysfunctional contract is fuelling an exodus from NHS dentistry. Real change is not coming this side of the summer.

‘What we’re expecting are modest, marginal fixes to the current failed system. Negotiations on the fundamental change needed have yet to begin.

‘This will be a test of the government’s ambition. Will ministers provide the resources and reform that millions of patients require? Or will they consider a few tweaks to a broken model as mission accomplished?’

NHS dentists in England use the units of dental activity (UDA) system as part of a deal with the government.

UDAs are used to measure a practice's activity. Courses of treatment – for example, a check-up or a filling, are banded into UDAs.

Practices are set targets of UDAs to achieve, and if that target is missed, the contract holder and the practice can be forced to pay back money.

But critics have claimed the UDA system does not incentivise preventative work and is a key reason for dentists leaving the health service.

The number of dentists providing NHS treatment plummeted from 23,733 at the end of 2020 to 21,544 at the end of January 2022 – the lowest level in a decade.