What are people telling us about urgent dental care?
Urgent dental care is different from routine dentistry. It’s meant to act as a safety net for people when they experience a sudden dental crisis, such as a broken tooth or severe tooth pain.
It has become a key political issue, with the government committing to delivering its manifesto commitment of delivering 700,000 additional urgent appointments per year through to 2028-29.
If you have a dental emergency you can (or should be able to) get an urgent dental care appointment within 24 hours or seven days, depending on your symptoms. Sometimes this is through a dentist who sees you regularly on the NHS, or via an urgent appointment arranged for you calling 111 (the NHS 111 service), who may have details of practices that will see urgent cases.
However, people across England tell us they are unable to sign up with an NHS dentist for routine care. Even when they have been taken on as regular patients at an NHS dentist, many people wait months for a routine appointment. We have repeatedly highlighted these significant issues with accessing NHS dentists.
National data reflects what people are telling us locally. In September 2025, 10% fewer adults had seen an NHS dentist in the past 24 months compared to 2019.
As a result, problems are not being prevented or treated early enough, and urgent care becomes the only form of dental care people can access.
What are Healthwatch doing to improve NHS dental care?
Local Healthwatch and Healthwatch England have repeatedly highlighted these significant issues with accessing NHS dentists
Find out more about the changes Healthwatch is calling for and what people are telling us about NHS dental care.
What are people telling us?
We looked at what people in North Yorkshire are telling us about their experiences of accessing urgent dental care. Several clear themes emerged:
- The system is hard to access
- Treatment options are limited
- People get stuck in a revolving door
- The impact on people’s lives is significant
- Those most at risk are being left behind
The system is hard to access
NHS England’s guidance for local NHS services says that patients should be able to get urgent dental care through a defined point of access such as NHS 111. However, the feedback people share paints a different picture.
People told us about long and exhausting attempts to secure an urgent NHS dentist appointment. For some, this meant hours spent on hold to NHS 111, while for others it meant being referred to urgent care and then being told that no appointments were available.
“I've been in Scarborough two years now and still haven’t been able to get registered with an NHS dentist. I rang everywhere, including calling 111, but nothing is available."
“It's impossible to get an emergency appointment. I've been told to ring 111 but they just say to ring dentists, who all say they are not taking NHS patients.”
NHS 111 online data shows that enquiries on the online webform about dental issues in England have risen recently. Between July and September 2025, enquiry volumes were around 20% higher than in the same period the previous year.
The system is made harder to navigate because there are several ‘pathways’ to access care, and these can vary depending on where you live. The NHS website states that to get an urgent appointment you should simply “contact a dentist”, without distinguishing between NHS and private providers, or ring 111. However, the reality differs across the country.
In some areas of England, NHS 111 can book appointments directly into dental practice systems, but in other areas patients say that they are given contact details for local dentists by NHS 111 and told to arrange their own appointments.
In other locations, people face more barriers. We heard that in some areas NHS 111 told patients they could not book urgent dental appointments at weekends. Some have been told there is no urgent care available, so they were sent to A&E and must wait several hours whilst in pain to receive antibiotics.
Without clear, consistent information, and with care varying across areas, people struggle to understand how to access the extra capacity promised in the new plan.
Treatment options are limited
After getting an urgent appointment, patients often say their treatment options are limited because NHS practices may only treat one tooth or problem at a time. Care can also differ greatly between clinics.
For example, some clinics only give antibiotics, while others only do extractions. The lack of options can leave patients frustrated, especially when services can't help with more complex dental issues or preventive care.
After giving urgent dental care, many practices don’t have any space to follow these patients up on the NHS. This leaves only the option of being followed up privately, which many people can’t afford. Without a route into NHS follow-on care, they find themselves returning to urgent services.
People tell us that urgent care often focuses on a single issue, such as one tooth, rather than addressing wider dental problems. Some practices offer only extractions, while others provide temporary relief but no longer term solution.
“Dentist have NHS dentist in Knaresborough but limited services. Anything beyond basic treatment you are told to go private.”
After urgent treatment, many people are told there is no capacity for NHS follow up care. This leaves private treatment as the only option, which many cannot afford.
“I have used NHS dentist services since 2015. All they offer now is emergency extractions. If you want anything repaired you have to pay privately.”
Without a route into routine NHS care, people are left vulnerable to repeat problems.
People get stuck in a revolving door
NHS England guidance guidance makes clear that when you use urgent services, they should address the immediate problem, begin to help manage any underlying issues and support you to get further NHS treatment if needed.
Yet our feedback suggests this is not happening consistently. When patients manage to get urgent dental treatment, many told us the relief is only temporary. Once treated, and the swelling goes down, or the immediate pain subsides, they often no longer meet the threshold for "urgent” care, even though the underlying problem may remain unresolved and the pain may quickly return.
Without access to routine follow up care, some people find themselves cycling between their GP, A&E, and urgent care dentists without receiving definitive treatment. We can see this in the national data - attendances at A&E for dental conditions have risen almost 45%, from 81,773 in 2019 to 2020 to 117,977 in 2023 to 2024.
“I have no NHS dentist. I go round in circles between GP, emergency dentist and being told there is nothing they can do unless I pay privately.”
Without access to routine dental care, people are pushed between urgent dental services, GP appointments and A&E, without ever receiving definitive treatment.
What is the impact on people’s lives?
When urgent dental services shift from being a safety net for occasional crises to a default route for care, prevention is neglected, and patients suffer. People shared the consequences of limited access to care on their lives:
Pain and long term damage
People describe living with constant pain, broken teeth, infections and worsening dental health.
“I live in constant pain because I cannot get an NHS dentist. My teeth break. I have infections. There is no help unless I pay.”
Financial strain
Many people feel forced to pay hundreds or thousands of pounds for private treatment, borrow money from family and friends, or use their pensions or benefits to cover costs.
Travel budens
In a large and rural county like North Yorkshire, people also face long journeys to reach urgent care, often without access to reliable transport. Practices offering urgent dental appointments are often located far from people’s homes. People have described journeys and round trips taking hours, with some even travelling abroad for treatment.
Dangerous self-treatment
Some people tell us they delay treatment, rely on painkillers, or try to manage symptoms themselves because they feel they have no other option.
“There is a total lack of NHS dentists in North Yorkshire. It has led me to delay treatment, self manage pain and worry constantly about infection.”
Those most at risk are being left behind
Vulnerable groups, including elderly patients and people with pre-existing or chronic illnesses who need regular dental care, are particularly impacted by the lack of routine and urgent care. People with caring responsibilities or limited incomes are also affected by the lack of NHS dental care in North Yorkshire.
“My wife, who is my carer, and I have not accessed an NHS dentist for years. With ongoing health issues this is extremely worrying.”
These experiences persist despite the Chief Dental Officer issuing guidance last year (which Healthwatch England pushed for) stating that “Patients with a diagnosis of cancer require prioritisation to prevent delay of vital medical care due to oral health problems.”
Healthwatch England's analysis of the latest NHS figures also reveals widening gaps in dental care between richer and poorer communities. Although the number of NHS dental treatments carried out in deprived areas has grown, people living in these areas are now 67% more likely to undergo urgent dental treatment than those in the most affluent areas – up from 40% in 2019.
The fact there is fewer NHS dentists in rural and deprived areas, forces low-income patients to rely on urgent care for preventable dental problems, as they cannot access routine care or afford private treatment.
Is access to urgent dental care likely to improve?
Thanks to the public speaking out on their poor experiences, and to campaigning by Healthwatch, improving NHS dentistry has been high on the political agenda. First, with a recovery plan from the Conservative government in early 2024, and then a Labour manifesto pledge in summer 2024 to deliver an extra 700,000 urgent dental appointments per year, through to 2028 to 2029.
The rollout of these extra appointments has been slow. Clear instructions for delivering the government’s urgent care pledge were not issued to Integrated Care Boardsuntil February 2025, and commissioners didn't receive the fine details of the policy until May 2025.
Despite urgent dentistry being a high public priority, there is still no clear picture of whether promised additional appointments are reaching patients.
Stephen Kinnock, the minister responsible for NHS dentistry, told MPs in March 2025 that data on the number of extra urgent appointments would be "published in due course" by the NHS Business Services Authority. However, the NHS Business Services Authority is only sharing this information with dental contractors and commissioners rather than publicly.
Only once data is available will it be possible to judge whether the plan is on track or capable of meeting the full scale of unmet urgent care.
What needs to happen?
Urgent dentistry provides critical support for people experiencing dental crises. However, the current system is leaving too many patients trapped in cycles of pain, receiving only short-term fixes, and facing financial hardship.
This is why we’re calling for large scale dental access reform, to rebuild NHS dentistry around fair access, clear registration, and better support for patients. We recommend:
Transparent monitoring and accountability
The NHS Business Services Authority should publish monthly progress data on the 700,000 urgent appointments target, in the same way progress is reported for hospital waiting lists
Consistent implementation of clinical guidance
Integrated Care Boards, as NHS dental commissioners, should ensure dental practices are delivering care in line with the May 2025 service specification, which requires patients to be stabilised and supported.
Clear and accessible information for patients
Integrated Care Boardsshould provide consistent, easy-to-understand information about how their populations can access urgent dental care and work to introduce central booking systems.
Give people the right to be registered with an NHS dentist
As part of dental contract reform, the government should introduce a legal right for people to register with an NHS dentist to improve access, strengthen prevention and patient pathways and support long-term planning.
