Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the timeline is for the dental backlog to be cleared sufficiently to allow capacity for people to have an annual NHS dental check up.

No timeline has been set out. Capacity in National Health Service (NHS) dentistry remains restricted with NHS dental practices continuing to operate below pre-pandemic levels of activity.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have set activity thresholds for dentists which have gradually increased throughout the pandemic period. NHS dental practices have been asked to meet as many prioritised needs as possible, focussing first on urgent care and care for vulnerable groups, including children followed by overdue appointments including NHS dental check-ups. NHS check-ups are scheduled according to clinical need and in line with recommendations from the National Institute for Health and Care excellence can be up to 24 months apart.

An additional £50 million in funding for NHS dentistry has been made available for the remainder of the 2021/22 financial year to give more patients that have been unable to obtain an NHS appointment access to dental care.