Britain is in the grip of a dental crisis, the British Dental Association has warned, as new figures reveal soaring levels of tooth decay, rising severe dental disease - and a surge in NHS hospitalisations for dangerous infections.
Last week the British Dental Association (BDA) held a meeting with health minister Stephen Kinnock calling for urgent government action. A spokesperson said a lack of affordable dental care has left millions suffering, often in pain or else taking out loans, travelling hundreds of miles to see a dentist or carrying out risky DIY dentistry.
Dental surgeons across the UK say the consequences are now spilling over into hospitals, with a rise in patients needing emergency treatment for dental infections so advanced they have blocked airways, facial swelling and sepsis.
The warnings follow the release of damning new findings from the government-funded Adult Oral Health Survey last week - the most comprehensive study of adult oral health in more than a decade. It shows the number of adults with obvious tooth decay has jumped to 41 percent, up from 28 percent in 2009.

Routine dental attendance has collapsed at the same time. Only 52 percent of adults now go for regular check-ups, compared with 61 percent in 2009. The number who only seek help when something is already wrong has risen sharply, from 27 percent to 35 percent.
The survey also revealed:
• 19% had at least one potentially urgent oral health condition
• 10% showed signs of deep decay
• 7% reported current dental pain
Almost a quarter of adults told researchers dental problems now affect their ability to eat, speak or smile. Among those who attend infrequently, the top reasons cited were being unable to find a dentist (40%), unable to afford charges (31%) and not perceiving a need to go (27%).
Children are also being hit. A previous national dental survey of five-year-olds carried out during the 2023-24 school year found 26.9 percent already had visible decay in their baby teeth, with many showing signs of enamel damage that can progress into more serious disease.
In Parliament last week, the BDA pressed the health minister to act urgently.

A spokesperson told the Sunday Express: "These are devastating findings. We are sliding back decades in oral health. We now have patients travelling hundreds of miles to get to a dentist due to lack of services, patients going to loan sharks to borrow money to get vital care and others taking matters into their own hands carrying out risky DIY dentistry. We have urged the government to take action. It cannot just blame the last government for this - it has a responsibility to act. Without real commitment, NHS dentistry won't have a future."

DIY dentistry has become so widespread in some communities that dentists report patients attempting to pull out their own teeth, glue in broken fragments or use knives and heat to lance infections when they cannot access urgent care. Debt advisors have also warned of people turning to loan sharks or high-interest short-term loans to pay for private treatment.

Hospitals are now dealing with the fallout.

Consultant oral surgeon Tom Thayer, based in the north west, said access problems since the pandemic have created a perfect storm of rising disease and falling capacity. He said many dental practices are unable to remain viable since the introduction of NHS contracts in 2006 which put a cap on dental spending budgets.

He said: "That we have large numbers of people with dental diseases of various forms is not at all surprising given that we have had a dental access crisis since the pandemic when dental work was severely restricted. We also have a decreasing number of dentists now able to deliver care due to a cap on NHS spending limits which means patients either cannot access treatment or are waiting longer leading to an increase in disease symptoms."

He added: "We are now seeing the end game with hundreds of patients ending up in intensive care units for urgent drainage of deadly infections - some of which lead to blocked airways or sepsis. When I was a trainee in the early 1980s this was relatively rare. Now hospitals are seeing patients every other day."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "This government inherited an NHS dental system that had decayed after years of neglect, and this survey is the proof.
"We are working hard to turn things around by rolling out extra urgent dental appointments, reforming the dental contract to prioritise patients with the greatest need and launching our supervised toothbrushing programme for three- to five-year-olds.
"There is more to do but this government is determined to fix Britain's broken dental sector and fundamentally transform the way NHS dentistry is delivered."