THERE'S been a dramatic decline in access to dental care across York, according to a health watchdog.

Healthwatch York have once again called for urgent and rapid reform of NHS dentistry in the city ahead of a City of York Council meeting tonight (January 24) where it's set to be discussed.

Click here to read how one councillor has spoken out ahead of the meeting.

Healthwatch York conducted an online survey across the city in the autumn of 2021.

They say the results show a dramatic decline in access to dental care across the city. Since 2018 their survey showed a 30 per cent decline in the number of people with a dentist, and 71 per cent of people unable to access dental care saying that the main reason was ‘they couldn’t find an NHS dentist’.

The watchdog says there has been a huge increase in the number of people unable to access dental care for two to three years.

Over half of respondents reported having one or more problems associated with dental pain or poor oral health including not being able to sleep properly, feeling self-conscious about their appearance, being unable to eat healthy food, being unable to work, unable to undertake physical exercise, or unable to care for someone.

One respondent in the report said: “We have been residents of York for a year now and I have contacted every local NHS registered dentist but none have places. We are now on a waiting list of people over 2,000 long. Please can you advise what options are available to us - private care is incredibly expensive for a family of 4.”

Another said: “I was in a lot of pain and couldn't get to see a dentist last year. I tried and tried, but got nowhere, so I thought ‘I'll pull it out'. I used salt water and it healed up eventually.”

Roger Newton, research officer at Healthwatch York, said: “We acknowledge the huge impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the additional pressures that enhanced infection and prevention control measures have imposed upon dental practices. However, we believe that the pandemic is not the only cause of the problems outlined in our report. Access to NHS dental care has been a problem in York for many years and continues to be at crisis point.”

Healthwatch York manager, Siân Balsom, said: “The continuing crisis in dental care is reducing the quality of life of many people across the city and creating additional pressures in other parts of the health system particularly the emergency department and primary care.

"We need to support NHS dental practices regionally through the new Integrated Care System (ICS) alongside rapid and radical reform of the way dentistry is commissioned and provided nationally in order to recruit and retain more NHS dentists.”

The city's dental crisis will be discussed tonight at the council's health and adult social care scrutiny committee. 

Clcik here to read the full report.