The Association of Dental Groups (ADG), the UK’s leading trade body for dental groups delivering patient care across NHS, private and community‑based dentistry, welcomed updated data from NHSBSA Dental Statistics. The new statistics show an increase in the delivery of NHS dental courses of treatment across adult and child populations in England.
Neil Carmichael, Executive Chair of the ADG, said: “It is heartening to see a continued uplift in the number of courses of treatment delivered. NHS delivery in England has increased and markedly so. To see that in 2025/26, courses of treatments for adult patients increased by 6% and by 7% for children is good news. This data is in contrast to the analysis from the Nuffield Trust earlier this week. NHS dentistry is still delivered by most dentists. Our dental groups are proud to be providing NHS dental care to patients who need it. The ADG celebrates NHS dentistry and we salute the dentists and dental care professionals who are making this happen.”
Key statistics in the new data show that in 2025/26, courses of treatment (COTs) for adult patients increased by 6% to 25 million, and by 7% for child patients to 13 million. Out of the total COTs delivered in 2025/26, 61% were for band 1 treatments, and 11% were for urgent treatments. There were 18.8 million adult patients seen in the 24 months to 31 March 2026. In the 12 months to 31 March 2026, there were 7.17 million child patients seen. This was 40% of the national mid-year adult population for England in 2025, and 60% of the mid-year population for children. In 2025/26, there were 43 dentists per 100,000 population in England. The number of dentists per 100,000 population varies across England by Integrated Care Board (ICB).
Within the NHSBSA data, however, there is a reminder of the existence of’ ‘Dental Deserts’, where there are geographical pockets of particular need, and a shortage of dentists to deliver against this. But these overall ‘green shoots’ of improvement bring optimism as we see NHS delivery increase.
Neil Carmichael continued: “We do also need to address the context that there are more registered dentists than ever before who are only working part-time. This and the overall NHS budget squeeze, with inflation and inadequate increases from the Treasury are putting pressure on the system.
“Whilst the figures are an improvement, there is still work to do. The ADG will be looking at how to address this in a forthcoming policy paper.”
