Department of Health and Social Care written question – answered on 3rd

 

Neil O'Brien The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care

We are currently working on a plan for dentistry, to improve access to dental care across England. There are a number of fronts where we need to take further action to support and recover activity in National Health Service dentistry, to improve access to care for all ages.

Our plan for dentistry will build upon the first package of reforms agreed in July 2022, including the initial changes to the Units of Dental Activity (UDA) system which were introduced as part of the package, such as the changes to banding and introduction of a minimum UDA value. It will address how we continue to improve access, particularly for new patients, and how we make NHS work more attractive to ensure NHS dentists are incentivised to deliver more NHS care.

In autumn 2022 we announced that funding has been secured to begin expansion of water fluoridation, subject to consultation, across the North East. Water fluoridation is an effective public health intervention to reduce the incidence of tooth decay and oral health inequalities and this expansion would enable an additional 1.6 million people to benefit from water fluoridation.