In an open letter to Wes Streeting, we have warned that a failure to fully meet demand for urgent dental care will only increase the pressures on our health service, as antibiotics become a substitute for treatment.
The chances of a dental appointment resulting in an antibiotic prescription increased tenfold during the pandemic, and new research from the University of Manchester shows even now prescribing levels have not returned to where they would have been if the pandemic hadn’t happened
Labour pledged and has begun commissioning of 700,000 urgent appointments. However, we have published NHS England messages shared with local health bosses indicating officials discovered total unmet need was actually 2.2 million.
Recent cases have highlighted the risks of patients extracting their own teeth, or ending up in ICU with dental infections. We remain clear that any chance of consigning ‘DIY’ dentistry back to the Victorian era requires a solution for all these patients.
Antibiotics do not cure toothache. The best way to protect the health service from the existential threat of antibiotic resistance is to ensure patients have timely access to urgent care.