THERE were as many as 3.5 million "missed" dental appointments last year as Covid struck, figures reveal.
Most practices closed to all but telephone triage services at the height of restrictions but have now reopened. Professionals say there's a backlog of patients seeking treatment and the continued need for tougher hygiene practices related to coronavirus is putting pressure on practices.
Data from Public Health Scotland shows the number of treatments delivered in the 12 months to March 2021 was less than one quarter of the previous year's total.
Adults underwent almost 970,000 separate course of treatment from March 2020-21 – compared with 4.1m over the year prior. For children, the number went from 470,000 to around 110,000.
The totals are in respect to the monies paid to dentists through the NHS General Dental Service, which covers a range of treatments. The figure fell to £135.5m – a record law and £163.1m down on the previous year.
David McColl, chair of the British Dental Association's Scottish dental practice committee, says the revelations prove ministers must continue emergency funding for the sector. Health Secretary Humza Yousaf wrote to all NHS dental teams last week to inform them that this support will be withdrawn by April. McColl said: "This new data underlines the sheer perversity of government plans to pretend Covid is yesterday's news.
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"Withdrawing emergency funding will pull away the life support from hundreds of dedicated NHS practices serving communities across Scotland."
However, the Scottish Government said: "The pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on the provision of dental services.
"We are moving forward rapidly with NHS dental recovery and are supporting the sector to build back to a pre-pandemic level of activity."
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