Nearly half of UK adults ‘have not seen the dentist in two years’

Nearly half of adults in England are not visiting the dentist, according to new data from NHS Digital.

The figures reveal that 48.3 percent of adults in England have not seen a dentist in the last two years, representing more than 20 million individuals. Meanwhile, nearly five million children have not had a check-up in the 12 months to June 2016, or 42 percent of the total.

This is despite guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommending that children should be seen by a dentist at least once a year, with the drop in attendance coinciding with patient charges rising almost five percent on last year to just under 740 million pounds.

Recent research from the British Dental Association (BDA) has indicated that these charges are driving an estimated 600,000 people a year to GPs for treatment, with charge revenue on course to exceed direct state funding for NHS services within a generation.

As such, the BDA has once again urged the government to do all it can to deliver a coherent oral health strategy and effective public engagement in order to address this problem.

Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen, chair of general dental practice at the BDA, said: "It's clear we have a problem when more than one in three children are missing out on free dental treatment. We need a concerted effort to get parents, health professionals and government on the same page."

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