Dental Services
(asked on 23rd January 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many urgent dental appointments were delivered each year from 2020 up to and including 2025.
The following table shows the number of National Health Service urgent treatments delivered each year between 2020/21 and 2024/25:
Financial year | Number of urgent dental treatments delivered |
2024/25 | 3,658,273 |
2023/24 | 3,674,710 |
2022/23 | 3,785,952 |
2021/22 | 3,819,226 |
2020/21 | 3,646,868 |
Source: NHS Business Services Authority, Dental statistics - England 2024/25, avaiable at the following link:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202425
Comparable monthly data on the number of urgent dental appointments delivered is not published.
We have asked integrated care boards (ICBs) to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent needs can get the treatment they require. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from April 2025.
Appointments are available across the country, with specific expectations for each region. These appointments are more heavily weighted towards those areas where they are needed the most. The Surrey Heartlands ICB, which includes the Epsom and Ewell constituency, has been asked to deliver 6,585 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.
Data on delivery of urgent dental care, including additional delivery, will be published annually as part of the NHS Dental Statistics England Official Statistics series. These statistics are released each August and are the primary source of data on the delivery of NHS dental care.