Campaign seeks support for regional dental school

The University of Lincoln is urging the public to back a campaign which aims to bring the first dental school to the region.

According to the university, access to NHS dental care locally is at "crisis point", with fewer than one in three people in some areas being able to access services.

Rural and coastal communities faced the greatest barriers, said Fiona Ellwood, associate professor of dental education at the university.

"We know there is a great need in the area for dental services, but also for a training facility," she added.

It comes after a dental institute was opened in March at the university which will offer a BSc in dental hygiene and therapy for students from September.

By training students locally, the university said it hoped to increase the number of dentists who stayed to live and work in the region.

It said that, as things stood, families were travelling long distances for basic care, with children experiencing high levels of tooth decay compared with the national average.

Vice chancellor Prof Neal Juster said: "We should be training dentists where they are needed most.

"Across Lincolnshire, we see the impact of limited access to NHS dentistry every day, so in March we launched the Lincolnshire Institute for Dental and Oral Health, bringing together partners to begin building the workforce our communities need."

The Strong Roots campaign has attracted support from Dr Jason Wong, the chief dental officer for England, and cross-party backing from local MPs.

Wong said: "All the research suggests that having the training in the locations that need it most attracts people to those roles in that area.

"That means a dental school would recruit from within Lincolnshire, and that would be a gamechanger for the region."

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