A NEW report has revealed that Dumfries and Galloway is experiencing the worst dental crisis in Scotland.
Public Health Scotland have released their national health service dental monitoring report, which shows that 40 per cent of adults in this region are now not registered with an NHS dentist.
As of the end of September, 94,913 people in Dumfries and Galloway were registered with an NHS dentist – equivalent to just 63.8 per cent of the population- massively below the national rate of 94.6 per cent.
Furthermore, the rate of adults registered fell from 70.2 per cent to 60.8 per cent; while the number of children registered also fell slightly from 79.4 to 78.1.
In addition, the number of people who have seen an NHS dentist has fallen by around 2000 in the past three months. In the first two quarters of 2024 over 16,000 people had contact with NHS primary dental care but in the third quarter that fell to just over 14,000.
There was also a drop in the number of children from the most deprived parts of Dumfries and Galloway accessing a dentist – down from 621 to 429 for the same period.
Answers have been demanded from the Scottish Government as to what’s going wrong locally.
In the Scottish Parliament last week, South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth asked for the government’s response to the report.
Replying, Health Minister Jenni Minto outlined several measures which are being carried out to try to improve the situation.
But Mr Smyth said: “The actions that the minister has outlined are clearly not working, because the problem has been getting worse.
“Why is the crisis so bad in Dumfries and Galloway? Why is the action not making a difference? More important, what more will the Government do to tackle the crisis, before NHS dentistry becomes a thing of the past for far too many of my constituents?”
Speaking afterwards, he added: “I have raised this issue repeatedly and while the Government is starting to take action, it has been too little too late.
“Our region has the lowest percentage of people registered with an NHS dentist in Scotland, which is absolutely shocking but sadly isn’t a surprise.
“NHS dentistry in Dumfries and Galloway has been, and remains, in crisis and the Scottish Government has been in denial for far too long.
“Unless they face up to this crisis in our area, it is only a matter of time before no adult in our region has NHS dental care.”
