Government announces new funding boost for NHS dentistry

The Department of Health has confirmed that an additional funding boost has been allocated to the dentistry sector in order to help surgeries take on new patients, set up extra clinics or buy in services like orthodontics.

A total of 30 million pounds is being made available for use by British dental practitioners, with surgeries applying through their local NHS organisations to access the cash.

It is the second year in a row that the government has made extra money available and will help to further improve the capabilities of the sector, with more than one million new patients seeing an NHS dentist since May 2010.

Health minister Lord Howe said: "Better oral health is a key priority of the government and we recently extended the dental pilot programme which will see preventative care at the heart of dentistry going forward."

This comes after a previous 28 million pound cash boost was made available in February last year.