THE British Dental Association has warned that the 50 new dental school places confirmed today stand little chance of easing chronic workforce problems or enhancing patient access to NHS dental care without comprehensive reform.

The Office for Students has now allocated 25 new undergraduate dentistry places to the University of East Anglia and a further 25 to the University of Portsmouth. Both institutions will be offering dentistry programmes for the first time from 2027.

The professional body has cautioned advocates of expansion that experience suggests these schools are unlikely to have a game changing impact locally. The 58 places currently offered at Peninsular Dental School in Plymouth appear to have done little to take the edge off the South West’s chronic access issues.

The BDA stress these numbers are tiny and are on track to represent less than 2% of new registrants. [1] It warns that without fundamental reform of the discredited NHS contract, wedded to a sustainable funding settlement, there is little hope of arresting the crisis in the service. [2] Unmet need for NHS dental care currently stands at nearly 14 million, or over 1 in 4 of England’s adult population. [3]

BDA Chair Eddie Crouch said:

“New dental schools are a step forward but are no silver bullet for ending dental deserts.

“Keeping even this tiny number of new graduates in the NHS hinges on making the service a place dentists would choose to build a career.

“That means real reform, wedded to sustainable funding.”