NHS dental service

Still a long way to go to repair decay

Published:

IT IS NOT just rotten teeth which have been causing concern in many parts of Scotland in recent years, but the level of decay in the NHS dental service.

In fact, it has become virtually non-existent in some places following a stampede into private practice by disillusioned NHS practitioners.

A shortage of dentists, with the failure to attract or keep them, was also cited as being a major contributory factor to the crisis.

Now work is under way at a new dental school in Aberdeen there are signs that the problem will ease in coming years. It has taken far too long, of course, for politicians to get to this point. The looming dental crisis appeared to have been simply brushed under the carpet despite constant warnings that serious problems were being stored up for the future.

These warnings have become reality with embarrassing queues in the street as patients lined up to rejoin a practice which was going private. There are also concerns about the state of children’s teeth deteriorating in the current conditions.

The new dental school is a step in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go to repair all the damage which has been done in the past.