British Dental Association says influx of foreign-trained dentists won’t solve oral health crisis as long as so few focus on NHS, rather than private patients
A record number of dentists are now working in the UK amid warnings that some patients may find it harder to get check-ups.
The British Dental Association (BDA) has said an influx of foreign-trained dentists will not solve the nation’s oral health crisis so long as the Government only funds enough NHS treatment for half the population.
Most dental practices in England are no longer taking on new adult NHS patients and the Mirror has reported how DIY dentistry is becoming widespread, with people in pain forced to yank out their own teeth.
The Mirror is highlighting the problem as part of our Dentists for All campaign as new General Dental Council data shows there were 48,000 dentists registered to work in the UK as of December 2025, up 3.4% in a year.
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The Government has made it easier for foreign-trained dentists to work in the UK and total new joiners from abroad outnumbered home grown dentists for the first time last year. However the BDA warns the problem remains that lack of funding means dentists will still increasingly focus on private patients and cut their NHS work.
BDA chair Eddie Crouch said: “The fundamental problem isn’t the number of dentists we have – it’s the fact they increasingly can’t see a future in a failed, underfunded system. The Government is on a futile bid to fill a leaky bucket, when it really needs to get on and fix it.”
NHS dentistry funding crisis – explained
The NHS dental budget has remained at around £3 billion for over a decade, despite inflation and population growth, meaning it is now only enough to treat half the population of England. The static budget equates to a real terms cut of around £1bn which has no parallel in any other part of the NHS.
Between 2010 and 2024 the proportion of the NHS budget spent on dentistry has more than halved from 3.3% to just 1.5%.
England invests almost half less into dental services per head of population than other parts of the UK. In 2023/24 government spend on NHS dentistry per capita was £37 in England, compared to £52 in Northern Ireland, £56 in Wales and £67 in Scotland.
Given that some patients would still choose private dentistry even if they could get an NHS dentist, the BDA estimates it would take an extra £1.5bn to restore a fully universal NHS dental service for everyone in England who wants it. This is in the context of a total NHS budget of well over £200bn.
The Government is making it easier for thousands of foreign-trained dentists to work in the NHS by expanding registration exam capacity and introducing a new “provisional registration” route.
A major problem is the “flawed” NHS dental contract which meant dentists make a loss treating patients who need the most work done -triggering an exodus of dentists to seeing only private patients.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has promised to reform the contract but the BDA argues that without additional funding, any changes only amount to “tweaks” to a broken system.
Changes already announced include commissioning extra urgent dental appointments for patients already in oral health crisis, but MPs have been warned this could mean some patients who only require maintenance care are pushed “off the books” at dental practices.
Eddie Crouch, speaking in Parliament at an event in chaired by the Mirror, said: “This will make patients who are in need of the complex care – the people least welcome in the dental practice because they cost it a lot of money to deliver that care – at least it will make those patients access the service a little bit easier.
“But the fundamental problem is there is no new investment with that. There are only so many seats on the bus. If you’re buying a certain size bus, and if those patients are filling the bus from urgent and unscheduled care… it does mean that other patients have to step off the bus.”
Last month we reported on dentists who descended on Westminster to demand a funding increase. Some 1,300 had signed an open letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer which was handed in at Downing Street.
