{"id":1177039,"date":"2026-08-30T10:08:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T10:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1177039\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T10:08:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T10:08:39","slug":"the-county-where-you-cant-see-an-nhs-dentist-for-six-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1177039\/","title":{"rendered":"The county where you can’t see an NHS dentist for six years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caity Duggan, from Lincoln, has not been able to see an NHS dentist<\/a> for six years.<\/p>\n

After months of calling for an appointment at her practice in Brigg, the 27-year-old was told her dentist had left and she hadn\u2019t been reallocated another.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey weren\u2019t willing to see me unless I paid to go private<\/a>,\u201d she said. Unable to afford the cost, Duggan lives with constant pain from her wisdom teeth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re catching on my gums. They are pushing through, on the inside of my mouth\u2026 and it is really sore. I\u2019ve got constant jaw ache.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is having to avoid certain foods such as salt and vinegar crisps and is regularly taking pain medication to manage.<\/p>\n

Dental deserts are popping up across England as hundreds of practices abandon NHS contracts, which critics say are underfunded, in favour of carrying out more lucrative private care. It has left patients with little choice but to pay for private dentistry, suffer without care or even resort to dangerous DIY measures in extreme cases.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the British Dental Association (BDA) warned that access is getting \u201cworse\u201d across large swathes of the country, with dentists leaving the NHS in their droves.<\/p>\n

At least 600 dental practices in England have stopped providing NHS care since 2017, according to analysis by the Nuffield Trust.<\/p>\n

Lincolnshire<\/a>, where Duggan lives, is one of the worst affected areas with just seven practices offering general NHS dentistry per 100,000 people \u2013 below the average of 10 per 100,000 across England, analysis by the health and social care think-tank shows.<\/p>\n

New patients also struggle to get appointments, with just 28 per cent able to, compared to the England average of 38 per cent.<\/p>\n

Northamptonshire, Bedford, Luton and Milton Keynes, Cambridge and Peterborough were also identified as areas with just seven NHS practices per 100,000 people.<\/p>\n

\u2018No one is taking on new patients\u2019<\/p>\n

Duggan, an employee relations adviser, is worried that her dental bill could exceed hundreds because of the extended period she has gone without an appointment \u2013 and the ongoing problems with her wisdom teeth.<\/p>\n

She has already been quoted hundreds of pounds for a private appointment excluding treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one\u2019s taking on new patients because no one has the dentist with any spare spaces,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m worried when I do get an appointment, they\u2019re going to be a massive list of things that I need doing. I\u2019m going to have to pay for through no fault of my own because I just haven\u2019t been seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duggan also wonders if \u201cthe pain is just going to continue to the point where I get an infection\u201d.<\/p>\n

The NHS Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board has identified Lincoln, Boston and Skegness as locations where there is unmet need and oral health is the poorest.<\/p>\n

In a bid to help meet the needs of patients in the rural county, the University of Lincoln has launched a campaign to bring the first dental school to the region.<\/p>\n

It is hoped that if more students are trained locally, the number of dentists who stay and work in the county will rise.<\/p>\n

The campaign has the support of Martin Vickers, MP for Brigg and Immingham, who said it would be \u201ccritical\u201d for improving access to NHS dental care in Lincolnshire.<\/p>\n

Dr Shiv Pabary, chair of the BDA\u2019s General Dental Practice Committee, said he has seen how dental schools can improve access for locals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a dental school in Newcastle, so when the students graduate, they tend to stay [in the area],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, he added that the Government needs to act with \u201creal urgency\u201d to fix an NHS dental contract that is \u201cnot fit for purpose\u201d so newly qualified dentists remain in the NHS.<\/p>\n

Dr David Trawford, a dentist at a private practice in Boston, left the NHS 23 years ago because changes to the contract made it \u201cdifficult\u201d to provide the desired treatment within its financial framework.<\/p>\n

He believes his colleagues are withdrawing from the NHS contract because of funding pressures.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do know of a practice in Spalding that used to provide NHS treatment,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have now gone private, and it will be in all cases for the same reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Jones, founder of Toothless in England, a grassroots campaign, said the country was in a \u201cdental crisis\u201d, with people pulling out their own teeth and children being admitted into hospital to have extractions.<\/p>\n

The i Paper contacted NHS Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caity Duggan, from Lincoln, has not been able to see an NHS dentist for six years. After months…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1177040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4316],"tags":[18646,105,4348,27120,211,41667,38616,16,15],"class_list":["post-1177039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-dentist","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-lincolnshire","tag-nhs","tag-nhs-waiting-times","tag-private-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117183912749070954","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1177039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1177039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1177039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1177040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1177039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1177039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1177039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}