As the British Dental Association prepares to sit down with the new team at the Department of Health and Social Care (on Tuesday 14 September), dentists across England are expressing real doubts whether Government will deliver on its promises.
According to a new temperature check survey of dentists in England (Carried out by the BDA 4-13 September 2026, with 415 respondents):
- Following recent tweaks to the NHS contract just 1% of dentists say they are likely to increase the volume of NHS work they do. Almost two thirds (63%) say they will reduce it.
- Only 10% of dentists believe these changes have made NHS dentistry better.
- Less than 1 in 10 believe the new government is likely to deliver fundamental reform of NHS dentistry. Four fifths do not agree it’s likely to meet patient need, fund the service properly, or deliver a comprehensive workforce plan.
The news follows recent analysis from the Nuffield Trust showing one in ten dental practices in England have abandoned their NHS contracts since March 2017. This includes a loss of 135 NHS practices since 2024, the year Labour came to power.
The professional body has urged the Department of Health to double down, and deliver promised reform of NHS dentistry, together with sustainable funding. The government failed to keep its pledge to put its vision of fundamental reform of the struggling service to public consultation this summer. While former ministers have made tweaks to the discredited contract fuelling the crisis in the service, to date not a penny of new investment has been committed to the rebuild.
BDA analysis of official data published earlier this summer indicates that unmet need for NHS dentistry in 2025/26 remains near record highs, at well over 13 million, or over 1 in 4 of England’s adult population.
Shiv Pabary, Chair of the British Dental Association’s General Dental Practice Committee, said: “Fixing NHS dentistry remains unfinished business. Tweaks at the margins simply haven’t changed the fundamentals. Millions still have no options, and demoralised dentists are still walking away.
“Before the last election Labour told us the cavalry was coming. The longer this profession is left to wait, the less of a service there will be left to save.”
