A DUMBARTON dentist has warned he fears many practices will have to consider abandoning NHS treatment due to rising costs and lower income in the sector.

Dr John Wright, principal dental surgeon at Wright Dental & Beauty Care on High Street, believes the NHS dental contract in Scotland needs to be overhauled because many surgeries are continuing to struggle to deliver services.

Outlining the post-Covid issues faced by dentists across the country, Dr Wright said: “I think the system is very unfair as it rewards the speed of dentistry and Speedy Gonzales dentists maybe have not done particularly good quality work but then get rewarded for it.

“But, in my opinion, the NHS system has been ground down to the point where the expenses of the practice are so high that we always have to work faster and faster and faster to keep our heads above water.

“When Covid came along it blew the thing out of the water, exposed the weaknesses of the system.”

Dr Wright had an assistant dentist who began working for him just two months before the pandemic hit. With just two months of practising dental care, her Covid support payment for her income was measured on an average of those two months of income by a schedule from the NHS system in Edinburgh.

But when that dentist decided to leave during the pandemic, the money left with her, meaning the replacement trainee Dr Wright got in had no history and no way to measure an income for him. The new dentist was given less than minimum wage to work in the practice.

Dr Wright added: “They said ‘well he’s got potential to earn more than that, so anything he earns over and above this amount he will get as well’, but really with Covid that’s not possible.”

With Covid support payment from the government ending at the end of March, the practice owner admitted he doesn’t know where NHS dentistry in Scotland goes in a post-pandemic landscape.

“The NHS want Rolls Royce treatment for pittance,” he said. “Currently we are 30 per cent down on our income over the last ten years, it has dropped 30 per cent. We haven’t kept with inflation, we’ve dropped below. So I think the longer that carries on people are going to think ‘what’s the point?’

“It’s hard work, you’ve got to run the surgery, buy the equipment, service it and if you for example pull someone’s tooth out, you get about £12 to do it.

“It doesn’t go very far towards paying the electric bill and the gas bill and the nurse’s wages. So, it’s a joke. Personally, I’d like to see us treated as equals to GPs”

Last month, the British Dental Association (BDA) warned the SNP’s 2021 election pledge of free NHS dentistry for all was unrealisable without meaningful support and real reform. It is pressed for a workable interim funding model, and long-term change to a system that prioritises prevention is patient-centred and reflects modern dentistry.

David McColl, chair of the BDA’s Scottish dental practice committee, said: “NHS dentistry in Scotland is facing crisis, but sadly ministers seem asleep at the wheel.

“Opposition parties are all seeing the plain facts that Scottish Government plans could devastate services millions depend on and widen already unacceptable health inequalities.

“Promises have been made to the voting public that simply that can’t be kept unless we see meaningful support and real reform as we head out of the pandemic.”

Dumbarton MSP Jackie Baillie echoed the concerns, adding fears over a “growing crisis”. Statistics published by Public Health Scotland have revealed that less than half (45.1 percent) of adults from the most deprived areas have seen an NHS dentist over the last two years. Over half (56.4 percent) of adults from the least deprived areas have been treated in that time period.

Ms Baillie said: “We know already that the very existence of NHS dentistry in Scotland is on the line, with the current funding model leading to privatisation by the back door, but now we have the proof that thousands of Scots have not been seen by dentists for years.

“That those from poorer backgrounds including people in my Dumbarton constituency, particularly children, are less likely to have received treatment is nothing short of a national disgrace.”

In response, a Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government is investing heavily in dentistry, including the removal of NHS dental charges during the lifetime of this parliament, to improve oral health and ensure patients get the help they need, with a 9 per cent increase in the budget for NHS dental services in 2022/23.

“We published the Oral Health Improvement Plan in 2018 with proposals around how NHS dental services might be reformed to ensure a more prevention-based approach and support clinical decision-making for NHS dental teams.

“Understandably the pandemic has interrupted the implementation of these plans, including the roll-out of an oral health assessment for all adult NHS patients. The intention is to recover NHS dental services and then proceed with reform and modernisation.

“In the meantime we are determined to ensure the NHS dental services emerge well-placed to care for the oral health of the whole population.

“Which is why we have supported NHS dental teams with an additional £50m of financial support (on top of their normal earnings before the pandemic) and £35m of PPE. We have also provided dentists with an additional £20m of increased fees from 1 February to give them new and additional incentives to see more patients.”