The extent of London's dental crisis was laid bare on Wednesday by figures showing that two million people have an unmet need for NHS dentistry.
Analysis of data by the British Dental Association (BDA) shows that one in four (28 per cent) Londoners need care – the highest figure of any region in the country.
This includes an estimated 630,000 adults who tried and failed to secure an appointment in the past two years.
One million Londoners did not try to access dental care on the NHS as they did not think they would get an appointment, while 80,000 were on a waiting list, according to the BDA’s analysis of data from the GP Survey by Ipsos.
Before the Covid pandemic, unmet need for NHS dentistry hovered consistently at around 1 in 10 of the adult population nationally.
But the BDA said that a failure to “bounce back” to pre-Covid levels reflected the “lacklustre” dentistry policies of the last Conservative Government, including a failure to tackle workforce shortages and reform the dental contract.
The contract for dental services has been blamed for a number of problems in dentistry, including an exodus of NHS dentists and so-called dental deserts, where patients struggle to find NHS care close to where they live.
There are also fears that an increasing number of Britons are turning to “DIY dentistry" after failing to secure an NHS appointment.
For some patients this could include using a filling kit from a pharmacy and in extreme cases some people have even claimed to have pulled out their own teeth.
Shawn Charlwood, Chair of the British Dental Association’s General Dental Practice Committee, said: “NHS dentistry has effectively ceased to exist for millions across this country.
“A new government has inherited old problems, but luckily hasn’t followed in its predecessor’s footsteps by pretending this crisis has been solved.
“These numbers are stark reminder we need urgency and ambition to save this service.”
Labour have pledged to create 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments a year as well as recruiting new dentists to under-served areas.
The extra appointments will be delivered in the evenings and at weekends.
The party also said it would introduce supervised toothbrushing for three to five-year-olds.
The BDA have pushed the Government for a short-term financial rescue package to keep dental practices afloat, ahead of longer-term reform of the dentist contract.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting met with the BDA last week to begin discussions over the new contract.
