'Patients have tried DIY dentistry because they are so desperate'
PA MediaIt is becoming increasingly difficult for some people to access routine NHS dental care. But what happens when the pain become unbearable? Health bosses in one region believe they have the answer.
Ronald Muir broke a tooth in October but he was not registered with a dentist.
He contacted NHS 111 and was directed to an Urgent Dental Access Centre (UDAC) in Carlisle.
"Within five minutes I had an appointment," he said.
"I went straight in, it wasn't delayed. They did the job. I came out within 10 minutes and I was completely fixed."
The centre is one of 23 operating across the North East and North Cumbria, which have seen more than 41,000 patients since the first two pilot centres opened in 2024.
They are for urgent cases only, such as broken and knocked-out teeth, abscesses and loose crowns and fillings. Anyone who cannot get an appointment can access them, even if they are registered at a private practice.
Dave Gallagher, from the region's Integrated Care Board (ICB), said the centres were "making big inroads" for people who need urgent treatment.
It is becoming increasingly hard for people to access routine NHS dental care.
This is because many dentists have been turning to the private sector, saying the contract for carrying out NHS work fails to cover the costs.
In some parts of the country there is no access to routine NHS dentistry.
In November, the BBC found that only four dental practices across the North East and Cumbria were accepting new adult NHS patients.
'Children with abscesses'
The North East and North Cumbria ICB took over dental services from NHS England in 2024.
It made a Primary Care Dental Access Recovery Plan which prioritised urgent treatment, mapping a network of 23 Urgent Dental Access Centres across the region at a cost of £9.5m.
Two pilot centres opened in Carlisle and Darlington in 2024.
Following their success, a rollout of 21 more began. The final centre opened in November in Newcastle.
The centres cover Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham and the Tees Valley, as well as Carlisle and Whitehaven in Cumbria.
The UDAC network now offers almost 109,000 urgent dental appointments in the North East and North Cumbria every year.
Most centres are located in existing dental practices.
Patients can book an appointment at any UDAC, not just their nearest.
They are only open Monday to Friday, and normal NHS charges and exemptions apply.
"It doesn't solve all the problems with dentistry," said Gallagher.
"But it's making big inroads for people who are truly in pain and need seeing."
Gallagher said the ICB was receiving fewer complaints about access to urgent dental care.
Dental clinical adviser Shiv Pabary helped set up Carlisle's UDAC in 2024 and has worked there ever since.
"I think it's professionally very rewarding." he said.
"It's what we were trained for. And it's just a shame it's got to this stage at the moment where dentists are walking away from the NHS."
Of the urgent access centres, Pabary said "anybody with a problem - we will see them".
"We see a lot of children here that can't see a regular dentist that are turning up with abscesses and infections. We've seen patients that have tried to do DIY dentistry because they're so desperate."
The government said it is proceeding with a raft of dentistry reforms which will see "the most significant modernisation of the NHS dental contract in years".
In December, it published plans to prioritise patients with the greatest need, which would come into effect from April.
It said, at present, patients with tooth decay in several teeth are treated over multiple appointments, which are "hard to co-ordinate" and prove "costly" to dentists.
The government said the changes would see such patients get a "single package of treatment over a long period", which would save them money, and dentists would be "incentivised to deliver this kind of care under a new standardised payment package".
