THE British Dental Association (BDA) has welcomed a government assessment of the costs of delivering NHS dental care, saying fair funding is needed to save the service.

Dentists and grassroots campaign Toothless in England have highlighted an access crisis for NHS dentistry, with huge swathes of the country lacking NHS dentists and 90 per cent of practices not accepting new adult NHS patients.

The BDA warned Parliament’s public accounts committee earlier this year that dental practices deliver care to NHS patients at a loss following a decade of “austerity funding,” prompting an exodus of dentists to the private sector.

The BDA estimates a typical practice loses over £40 delivering a set of NHS dentures, and over £7 on a simple new patient exam.

The Department of Health and Social Care is launching a cost-of-service exercise, and the BDA is urging all practices to participate.

But it said the Treasury needed to be ready to open the purse strings if the findings, as expected, make that case.

BDA general dental practice committee chair Shiv Pabary said: “Austerity left practices delivering care at a loss. No business can operate like this.

“Dentists can spell out the facts, but the Treasury will need to act on them.”

Toothless in England’s Mark Jones expressed cautious support, but said the survey was unlikely to make a big difference on its own.

“Unless the government undertakes a nationwide oral health needs assessment, we are doubtful that any proposed model of future funding for NHS dentistry will match the existing and future needs of patients,” he told the Morning Star.