\n You need specialist clinical intervention.\n<\/p>\n
\n You also need it now.\n<\/p>\n
\n Not tomorrow, not next week, and definitely not 20 miles away in the next county, possibly paying a private premium you can\u2019t afford.\n<\/p>\n
\n For many of you reading this across the East of England, the struggle to find treatment and pain relief will be a painfully familiar story. Literally.\n<\/p>\n
\n Access to an NHS dentist should be a basic function of a modern health service and yet in some areas, like this one especially, getting a timely appointment has felt almost impossible.\n<\/p>\n
\n More often, families have been left waiting months in pain, parents unable to access treatment for their children with local practices, and whole communities seemingly abandoned by a system that simply isn\u2019t working for them.\n<\/p>\n
\n If Sir David Attenborough made documentaries about dentists, in some parts of the country, he\u2019d probably say they were an endangered species.\n<\/p>\n
\n That is why this government is taking decisive action to rebuild NHS dentistry.\n<\/p>\n
\n It\u2019s also why our announcement of new dental school places at the University of East Anglia is such an important moment for your region.\n<\/p>\n
\n Backed by \u00a311 million of government funding, we are delivering the first sustained expansion of dental school places in nearly 20 years.\n<\/p>\n
\n From 2027 onwards, the University of East Anglia and the University of Portsmouth will each host 25 new dental training places, helping train the next generation of NHS dentists in communities that need them most.\n<\/p>\n
\n This matters because we know dentists, much like other NHS clinicians in training, are far more likely to stay and practise in the areas where they learn their craft.\n<\/p>\n
\n By bringing dental education to Norfolk for the first time, we are putting down roots for a stronger NHS dental workforce right here in the East of England.\n<\/p>\n
\n On top of this, we will make it a requirement for newly qualified dentists to practice in the NHS for a minimum period \u2013 meaning that patients can have the reassurance that the staff is there to provide the care they need.\n<\/p>\n
\n The region has already benefited from previous reforms, including embedding evidence\u2011based prevention for children, such as supervised toothbrushing and fluoride varnish, introducing longer-term pathways for patients with complex needs, and strengthening urgent care delivery with fairer funding for dentists.\n<\/p>\n
\n And since 2024, primary care commissioners in the East of England have been focussing on improving access to urgent dental care, undertaking children\u2019s oral health initiatives, and recruiting and retaining NHS dentists to the area. Their Long-Term Dental Plan aims to build on successes so far to increase access to oral health care across the region and build stability and resilience in NHS dental services by 2029.\n<\/p>\n
\n Today\u2019s announcement builds on these reforms.\n<\/p>\n
\n We are also increasing the number of professional registration exam places for overseas-trained dentists, meaning up to 2,400 additional dentists could join the register every year by 2028-29.\n<\/p>\n
\n This is part of our wider 10 Year Health Plan: shifting healthcare from sickness to prevention, from hospital to community, and making sure no part of the country is left behind.\n<\/p>\n
\n No one in the 21st century should be forced to live with dental pain because they cannot get an NHS appointment. Or, even worse, forced to take matters into their own hands.\n<\/p>\n
\n These new training places are a major step towards changing that.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ultimately, filling gaps in provision, means filling gaps in teeth.\n<\/p>\n
\n I\u2019m confident these new training places will, in time, restore local dentistry across your region.\n<\/p>\n
\n Finally, you\u2019ll get the affordable NHS dental care you and your family deserve, closer to home, when you need it most.\n<\/p>\n
\n Stephen Kinnock is minister of state at the Department of Health and Social Care<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You need specialist clinical intervention. You also need it now. Not tomorrow, not next week, and definitely not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-628834","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\/628834","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=628834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}