The British Dental Association has expressed hope that an increase in the number of NHS dental appointments delivered will mark the start of a long road to recovery for the struggling service, but stressed further improvements hinge on meaningful reform backed by sustainable funding.
Data released on Saturday 21 February 2026 shows that dentists in England delivered an extra 1.8 million courses of dental treatment over the first seven months of 2025/26, compared to the same period two years prior. While this marks progress, activity remains millions of treatments below pre-pandemic levels – a time when access problems were already widespread and fewer than half of adults were able to see an NHS dentist over a two-year period.
Until recently, hundreds of millions of the NHS dental budget remained unspent each year, as practices struggled to recruit dentists to work under a dysfunctional contract. The new Government has ensured almost all of the allocated budget is now spent on dental care, contributing to the recent uplift in activity. However, without additional investment, it will not be possible to restore access for the nearly 14 million people in England who are currently unable to secure NHS dental care.
The share of NHS spending allocated to dentistry has more the halved under the last Government, from 3.3% of the overall budget in 2010/11 to just 1.5% in 2023/24. Dentalspend was cut by over a third in real terms, failing to keep up with inflation and population growth. These savage real-terms cuts have left a typical practice delivering many NHS treatments at a financial loss, with the system only kept afloat by hundreds of millions in cross-subsidy from private work.
The BDA stressed that the promised long-term reform of the dental contract will only succeed if practices are placed on a financially sustainable footing.
Chronic underfunding and failure to reform the contractresulted in a dramatic decline in adult oral health in England under the last Government, with decades of oral health gains wiped out, as decay rates surged to levels not seen since the 1990s. The BDA says the nation’s oral health gap will only widen unless meaningful reform goes hand in hand with adequate investment.
Shiv Pabary, Chair of the British Dental Association’s General Dental Practice Committee, said: “This uptick in activity is progress, and reflects the commitment of thousands of dentists who have continued to deliver NHS care against all odds. But millions are still going without care. After years of savage cuts, ending this crisis will hinge on promised reform being backed by sustainable funding.
“The Government must build on this progress with urgency and ambition. To give NHS dentistry a future,we need a response proportionate to the challenges we face.”
The British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD), meanwhile, welcomes the news that there is improved access to urgent care for dental patients. BSPD, the UK’s leading organisation advocating for good oral health for children and young people, also notes that within this urgent care access, there is a significant number of children being seen. The Society points out that whilst this increase in access is positive, we must now move on to the next phase which means opening up dental care to children and young people for routine appointments and taking a determined prevention approach.
Dr Oosh Devalia, President, British Society of Paediatric Dentistry, said: “BSPD welcomes the fact that more children and young people are now able to see a dentist when they have an urgent dental need; however, this is just the first step in rebuilding dental services. We must now expand routine access and double down on preventive efforts to reduce the number of children experiencing dental decay in the first place.
“We know that prevention is the most effective way to tackle the unacceptable number of children needing their teeth extracted in the UK, but without routine access, dental teams are unable to spot problems early, before they require hospital admission. The roll-out of the targeted supervised toothbrushing programmes and the expansion of community water fluoridation are all positive steps, but we need to push harder to ensure that every child has the oral healthcare they deserve.
“Across the UK, there is excellent work already taking place. Integrated Care Boards must be empowered to meet the needs of their local population, with the flexibility to tailor solutions to their communities. We must give ICBs this freedom to act.
