Revealed: 80% of NHS dentists have shut their door to new patients, according to shock analysis… so is YOURS one of them?

Eight in 10 dentists in England are not accepting new adult patients, a shocking analysis has revealed.

Of the 4,969 dental practices across the country that recently updated their status, 82 percent are not adding new residents 18 and older to their roster.

A further 71 per cent are not having any more children, NHS data shows.

But in some parts of the country the figures are even bleaker, with 99 per cent of practices in the South West seemingly turning away requests from adults seeking NHS dental care.

MailOnline's handy interactive tool allows you to enter your zip code and check the status of dentists in your area.

The collapse of NHS dentistry has left millions of people missing vital check-ups.

Some have resorted to queuing overnight for a place with a practice or resorting to do-it-yourself dentistry.

Labour, which analyzed the data, said it would boost funding for NHS dental practices, giving dentists hundreds of thousands of extra appointments and incentives to work in the parts of the country where the need is greatest.

The data shows that there are 6,605 dental practices in England.

Of these, 4,969 have provided recent responses to the NHS about the status of their patient list.

Behind the South West, the situation is also dire in the North East, where only 97 per cent of practices are open to taking new adult patients, followed by the East Midlands (94 per cent) and the East of England (91 per cent).

Meanwhile, it's easiest in London, where six in 10 clinics accept, followed by the West Midlands (73 percent) and the North West (77 percent).

Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: 'The Conservatives have left NHS dentistry behind, and now the service is hardly worthy of the name.

'Patients are being told to do without or do it themselves, now that DIY dentistry is shockingly common in Tory Britain.

'The slow death of dentistry is the specter of the Christmas future for the NHS, if the Conservatives get a fifth term: those who can afford to go private and those who can't resist giving poor people a poor service offer.

'Labour has a fully budgeted plan to save NHS dentistry by tackling the immediate crisis and reforming services in the long term.'

NHS dentistry has been in crisis for years, with leaders claiming the sector is chronically underfunded, making it financially unviable to provide treatments.

The problem is further compounded by the fact that as more dentists leave the NHS, the remaining dentists are swamped by more and more patients, resulting in a domino effect.

Patients have told of queuing outside dental surgeries from 4am to get a spot at practices that have opened their lists to NHS patients – a phenomenon experts say is becoming the 'new normal'.

Practices have complained that they received thousands of calls when they released a handful of places for new patients.

Patients say they have been forced to perform DIY dentistry after struggling to access NHS care.

NHS dental services at 'most dangerous point' facing worst crisis in 75 years, which could see cuts to services, report warns

By Kate Pickles

NHS dental services are at their 'most dangerous point' ever and radical reforms are needed to 'slow the decline', a report has warned.

Experts at the Nuffield Trust say the situation is so bad that services must now be limited to just check-ups, pain management and emergency treatment.

It comes after reports of patients across the country having to queue overnight for the few NHS dental places that become available – figures show only four in ten adults have seen a dentist in the past two years health care seen.

The trust – a charity aimed at improving healthcare in Britain – said a major overhaul is needed because the days of heavily subsidized NHS dentistry are 'gone forever'.

And there are concerns for future generations, with tooth decay now the most common reason for hospital admission for children aged six to 10, who should have free access to the service.

The report highlights that efforts must be made to lure dentists back from the lucrative private sector, from which many have fled, by offering better contracts based on work performed rather than targets that could actually see them losing money for the treatment of NHS patients.

Even then, restoring universal access would cost “billions a year,” largely paying for the care people currently receive by paying privately at an increased rate.

The average charge for an initial consultation with a private dentist is now £74, while the same appointment on the NHS costs £25.80.

Dental leaders said the report reads 'like the last rites for NHS dentistry' as they accuse successive governments of 'muddling through' rather than implementing reforms.

The pandemic, austerity and rising costs of living are all blamed for accelerating the demise, with six million fewer treatments carried out on the NHS last year compared to pre-Covid levels.

Total spending on dental services was £3.1 billion in 2021/22, down £525 million in real terms since 2014/15.

In a letter to Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Victoria Atkins, the British Dental Association (BDA) said the access crisis was being fueled by an 'exodus' of NHS dentists and warned the service was 'at risk of being wiped out' unless widespread changes .

A 'drift' towards the private sector was exacerbated by Covid-19, with dentists reducing their NHS commitments.

And despite the growing crisis, no post-Covid recovery had been planned in the same way as other healthcare services, such as waiting lists, the report said.

As a result, it says: 'The NHS does not commission enough dentistry to meet the needs of the population.'

It therefore calls for an urgent need to provide adequate access to a basic core service for children, the elderly and those who cannot afford private care.

This would mean 'revoking some of the rights to NHS services that people currently enjoy in theory – but which in reality are mostly missing', the authors add.

The report points out the shortcomings of the current dental contract – introduced by Labor in 2006 – and adds that it needs to be changed to make treating NHS patients financially worthwhile.

Under current reimbursement, dentists are paid for batches or courses of treatments, rather than for each part or individual procedure.

It meant that until last year, dentists received the same reimbursement from the NHS for a patient needing ten fillings as for a patient needing one.

The government made some changes to the NHS dental contract at the start of the financial year, but these were dismissed as 'minor adjustments' by the BDA.

Thea Stein, chief executive of Nuffield Trust, said: 'We must take immediate action to slow the decline of NHS dentistry, but it is becoming increasingly clear that we can no longer muddle through with an endless series of contract amendments.

'If it looks like the original model of NHS dentistry is gone for good, then it is imperative to provide sufficient access to a basic service for those who need it most.'

The number of dentists providing NHS care fell by 121 from 24,272 to 24,151 last year, with the number falling by more than 500 since lockdown.

A separate analysis by the PvdA showed that eight in ten practices had closed their doors to new patients. Of the 4,969 dental practices in England, 4,112 said they were not accepting new adult patients and 3,531 were not accepting children.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: 'We fund more than £3 billion of NHS dentistry every year and… have plans to increase the number of dental training places by 40 per cent.'

An NHS spokesperson added that the service had introduced 'the first reforms to dentistry in 16 years', which are helping to tackle backlogs caused by the pandemic, adding: 'Dental activity (has) increased up more than a fifth compared to last year.'