UK Government<\/a> that have already been mitigated in Northern Ireland but not in Scotland.\n<\/p>\n\n Albert Yeung, chair of the BDA\u2019s Scottish Council, said the sustainability of NHS dentistry now depends on decisive government action.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cIf we want NHS dentistry in Scotland to remain a going concern in the 21st century, it will require a sustained plan of action.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt means closing an oral health gap between rich and poor that\u2019s already widening. To call time on postcode lotteries of care that remain the norm.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt requires the next government to ensure we have the dental team members we need on the frontline.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cAnd it means doubling down on prevention. This country can\u2019t rest on its laurels when decay remains the number one reason for hospital admissions among young children.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe public are clear the next Scottish Government needs to go further, and faster. We must future-proof dentistry in Scotland, because failure to do so will come at a steep financial, human and ultimately a political cost.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis is already an issue on the doorstep. It will remain one until voters see real change.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The BDA also highlighted evidence of widening inequalities in oral health across Scotland.\n<\/p>\n
\n According to the latest National Dental Inspection Programme report, just 68.2% of Primary 7 children in the most deprived communities were free from tooth decay, compared with 91.5% in the least deprived areas – a gap that has widened since 2019.\n<\/p>\n
\n Public Health Minister Jenni Minto said: \u201cDentistry is an absolute priority for this government \u2013 that is why we implemented significant reform in 2023 to incentivise dentists to deliver more NHS care and continue to invest over half a billion pounds into the sector. Our 2026-27 Budget shows a nearly 40% increase in funding, on a cash-basis, over the life of this Parliament.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis significant and continued investment in NHS dentistry is delivering for the people of Scotland and supporting high volumes of patient access to NHS care.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe have delivered almost 1.1 million courses of NHS dental treatment in the latest quarter \u2013 with 96% of the Scottish population registered with an NHS dentist.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The data collated by YouGov involving 1,075 adults aged 16 and over found that 12% of adults said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-478417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}