Dental Services: Coronavirus

(asked on 6th July 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the timeframe is for dental practices restart routine, non-urgent treatment as the covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 5th August 2020

Dental practices have been able to open for face to face National Health Service care, including routine care, from 8 June. Decisions on when to reopen for private care are a matter for the practice concerned. The guidance from NHS England and NHS Improvement to NHS contract holders was clear that the pace of the restart should be only as fast as possible compatible with maximizing safety for patients and dental staff. A copy of the letter that was published can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/wp-ontent/uploads/sites/52/2020/03/Urgent-dental-care-letter-28-May.pdf

There are also currently over 600 urgent dental centres which remain open across England to ensure patients can continue to have access to urgent treatment while practices gradually restart a full range of care.

Dentists are using clinical priority to decide which patients to see first and, where they have capacity, they are free to also restart routine non-urgent appointments.

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