STORY
More than one in ten dental practices that provided NHS treatment in England in 2017 have since stopped doing so, according to new analysis from the Nuffield Trust. The proportion of dental practices offering general NHS dentistry fell from around 65% in 2017 to 56% in 2026, with nearly 600 practices withdrawing from NHS provision. Over the same period, the number of practices without an NHS general dental contract, largely private or specialist providers, increased by almost 1,000.
The decline was recorded in 41 of England’s 42 integrated care board areas, with particularly large reductions in parts of the South West and East of England. The Nuffield Trust said NHS dental activity also remains below its pre pandemic level, while its wider data shows that in June 2025 only 40% of adults had seen an NHS dentist within the previous two years. The think tank warned that the continuing movement of practices away from NHS work risked creating an increasingly two tier system in which access depended on patients’ ability to pay and where they lived.
The Government said it recognised that too many people were struggling to obtain dental treatment but argued that it was rebuilding NHS dentistry through contract changes, additional treatments and an expansion of the workforce. Reforms introduced from April include changes to payments for urgent and complex treatment, while ministers have also said newly qualified dentists will be required to work in the NHS for at least three years. The Nuffield Trust said the recent contract changes could improve urgent access but argued that more fundamental reform would be needed to reverse the decline in practices willing to provide NHS care.