New data reveals no dental practices in Angus are accepting new NHS patients

Investigations have revealed that none of the dentistry practices in Angus are accepting NHS patients.

Now, the Convener of the Angus & Mearns Lib Dems, Ben Lawrie, has demanded the Health Secretary comes to visit dentistry practices in Angus to see for themselves how dire the situation is.

The former Angus councillor also wants the Health Secretary to meet with local people who have been forced to wait in agony for months due to a lack of NHS dentist appointments.

The figures were released alongside harrowing accounts of DIY dentistry as hard working families and pensioners struggle to find the affordable care that they need.

Responding to the figures, Mr Lawrie said: “People in our area should know if they are in pain or face a health emergency that the NHS is there for them.

"Yet these scandalous figures prove NHS dentistry in Angus is at breaking point.

“Our NHS dental system is broken after 15 years of SNP mismanagement.

"People are being forced to spend hundreds if not thousands of pounds on private dental care with some even resorting to their own at-home DIY dentistry.

“There is a real risk that we see the death of NHS dentistry in Scotland unless the Health Secretary is prepared to change course.

"We are demanding the Health Secretary visits our area to meet with local dentists and patients to hear just how bad things are here.”

The BBC investigation found that nine in ten dental practices across the UK were not accepting new adult NHS patients and that eight in ten were not taking on children.

The Department of Health said it had made an extra £50m available "to help bust the Covid backlogs" and that improving NHS access was a priority.

The British Dental Association (BDA) called it "the most comprehensive and granular assessment of patient access in the history of the service".

The lack of NHS appointments has led people to drive hundreds of miles in search of treatment, pull out their own teeth without anaesthesia, resort to making their own improvised dentures and restrict their long-term diets to little more than soup.