The government has announced reforms to dentistry services that will prioritise those with urgent and complex, such as severe tooth decay.

Satisfaction with NHS dentistry has fallen to a record low, with the British Dental Association outlining that over one in four adults are struggling to access NHS dental care.

The reforms will see a special course of treatment for patients with severe gum disease or with at least five severely decayed teeth, more money for denture modifications, and a requirement for dentists to deliver a set amount of urgent and unscheduled care each year. This is a huge step towards the government’s commitment of 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments each year, as well as better provision for children’s dentistry.

Additionally, the government will boost preventative care for children, including better use of tooth resin sealants for children with a history of decay and applying fluoride varnish on children’s teeth without a full dental check up. This is in response to research that found more than one in five (22.4 per cent) of five-year-old schoolchildren in England had experience of obvious dental decay, with tooth decay the most common reason for hospital admissions in children between five and nine.

The new contract will also include greater measures to make dental staff feel rewarded, incentivised and a bigger part of the NHS are also part of the government’s proposed package.

Today, the government has opened up a major consultation on the NHS dentistry contract to increase the amount of care, which will run for six weeks until Tuesday 19th August.

Health minister Stephen Kinnock said: “We inherited a broken NHS dental system that is in crisis. We have already started fixing this, rolling out 700,000 urgent and emergency appointments and bringing in supervising toothbrushing for 3-5 year olds in the most deprived areas of the country.

“But to get us to a place where patients feel NHS dentistry is reliable again, we have to tackle the problems in the system at their root.

“These reforms will bring common sense into the system again, attracting more NHS dentists, treating those with the greatest need first, and changing the system to make it work.

“This is essential to our Plan for Change—building an NHS fit for the future and making sure poor oral health doesn’t hold people back from getting into work and staying healthy.”