The Tories have no plan to address it, they are the source of much of the pain. Indeed their dental review in 2015 only committed to increasing charges to patients, not increasing funding (or any other plan).
Dentistry was the only part of the NHS receiving less real terns funding in 2020 than it was in 2010.
"While the population of England grew by 7.42% between 2010 and 2020, the amount of dentistry commissioned by NHS England was cut by more than 2 million units of dental activity (UDAs). UDAs commissioned per head of population fell from 1.70 to 1.56, while government contributions per head fell from £41.79 to £34.53 in the same period.
• In 2010/11 the gross budget for high street NHS services was £2.81bn, of which £614m was drawn from patient charges, £2.2bn from direct government contributions. In 2019/20 while the gross budget reached £2.96bn, net government contributions had fallen in cash terms to £2.1bn.
• To restore the resourcing in NHS General Dental Services to 2010 levels, simply reflecting RPI inflation would require a total budget of £3.6bn for NHS General Dental Services. In order to also reflect population growth in the intervening period would require a budget of £3.9bn."
The BDA survey last year showed:
- Nearly half (45%) report they have reduced their NHS commitment since the onset of the pandemic, by an average of over a quarter.
- 75% say they are now likely to reduce – or further reduce – their NHS commitment in the next 12 months, the highest level in any BDA surveys since the first lockdown. 45% say they are likely to go fully private. Nearly half (47%) indicate they are likely to change career or seek early retirement.
- Nearly 9 in 10 (87%) state they have experienced symptoms of stress, burnout or other mental health problems in the last 12 months, with 86% reporting colleagues in their practice have received physical or verbal abuse from patients. 75% say they are unable to spend sufficient time with patients, and only 25% say they are able to offer the kind of care they want to provide.
Unsurprising when there are places like Ashfield in Nottinghamshire which has an NHS dental staffing rate of 0.062 dentists per 1,000 people.