Reacting to news that the UK government has opened a consultation on reforms to the NHS England dental contract, Professor Grant McIntyre, Dean of the Dental Faculty at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh said:
"We are delighted that the Department of Health and Social Care has acknowledged the importance of dentistry and oral health which is a key component of the Ten Year Plan for the NHS in England.
"We are also delighted that the government has acknowledged that many of the problems in delivering NHS dental services lie with the current NHS England dental contract. NHS dentistry is broken so this is an important step in fixing this significant problem.
"However, we estimate that an extra 4 million appointments are needed to return NHS dentistry to pre-Covid levels. Thus whilst we wait for the details of the consultation to be made public, we look forward to working with the UK government to shape a dental service for England that is effective, sustainable and focused on patient need.
"We will also be doing our utmost to engage with our Fellows and Members across the dental profession to ensure their views and expertise are articulated and listened to."