‘Shameful’ inequality gap in dental care access
Thousands in the most deprived areas of Scotland have had less access to NHS dental care.
Recent figures show there is a 17-21% gap in access to dental care between Scotland’s most and least deprived communities, the Glasgow Herald reports. The Scottish Conservatives described the inequality gap as “shameful” and the party says it has been caused by “decades of SNP mismanagement”.
In the first quarter of 2025, 48,028 children and 137,040 adults in the most deprived areas of Scotland had NHS dental care, according to Public Health Scotland data published at the end of May. By comparison, 56,779 children and 166,013 adults in the least deprived areas had access to this care.
Sandesh Gulhane MSP, Scottish Conservative health spokesperson, said: “It’s shameful that two decades of SNP mismanagement has left Scots facing a postcode lottery when it comes to accessing dental care. The SNP’s chronic underfunding and dire workforce planning is hitting children and adults from our poorest communities the hardest and left them unable to access NHS dentistry.”
Four in ten Scots registered with a dentist have not seen one in two years, according to a freedom of information request by the Scottish Liberal Democrats from January this year. That includes 1.8 million adults and 177,318 children, according to Public Health Scotland. Another 80,000 children have not seen a dentist in five years.
In its most recent budget, the Scottish Government allocated £512.4 million for General Dental Services in 2025-26, an increase from the £499.4 million allocated in the previous year. A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Over one million patients were seen by an NHS dentist between January and March 2025 and Scotland is the only country in the UK that offers free, regular dental examinations for all.
“This helps to ensure cost is not a barrier to accessing care, as we increase funding in primary dental services by 15% in 2025-26 bringing total investment in this area of half a billion pounds for the first time.
“The First Minister set out clear commitments in our recent Programme for Government to develop the dentistry workforce. These include supporting international dentists to join NHS Scotland, incentivising dentists to move to rural areas and increasing domestic dental student numbers by 7% from September 2025. Our flagship Childsmile programme also aims to ensure that every child in the country has access to high-quality dental services.”
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