According to new data, almost a million adults in the Midlands have not been able to get an appointment with a dentist in the last two years. On Wednesday, July 16, the British Dental Association (BDA) issued a warning, stating that there is a record amount of unmet need for NHS dentistry.
The "unmet need" for NHS dentistry in the Midlands is estimated to be over 2.2 million, or one in four of the adult population, according to an analysis of dental data conducted as part of a recent Ipsos GP Survey.

This figure includes an estimated one million adults in the region who have tried but failed to secure an appointment in the last two years. Additionally, 800,000 people confessed to giving up on trying to get appointments as they believed they wouldn't be able to receive care.

The cost of care deterred another 26,000 individuals, while approximately 130,000 indicated they were on waiting lists. Nationally, the unmet need was at 13 million.

Despite some methodological changes with the survey moving to an online-first approach, the BDA stated that it showed a clear increase from last year when the total figures were around 12 million. Before the pandemic, the unmet need for NHS dentistry consistently hovered at about four million or one in ten of the adult population.