In January this year, 27,000 children were on waiting lists for assessments or procedures at community dental services, according to figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted to the NHS Business Services Authority.
This includes children waiting on care for severe untreated tooth decay, those with physical or learning disabilities and those who need treatment for complex dental problems.
Children in some parts of the country are experiencing average wait times of 18 months just to be assessed, according to a report by The Guardian based on the figures.
Ed Davey, Liberal Democrat leader, said the findings were “disgraceful”.
He added that the figures should “act as a wake-up call”.
Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse, who commissioned the research, said: “We know that regular dentist appointments are crucial to prevent tooth decay among children.
“But for far too many parents, getting an NHS dentist appointment for your child has become almost impossible.”
The BDA said that year-long waiting times are “nothing new and reflect systemic failures in government policy”.
Chair Eddie Crouch added that the backlogs predate the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Children are waiting in agony thanks to the indifference successive governments have shown to dentistry.
"It's a perfect storm. Dentists are losing the battle to nip these problems in the bud, and struggle for theatre space when extractions are the only option," he said.
Crouch said that ministers have a “moral responsibility” to reform dental care in light of the figures.
More than 1,300 dentists have signed an open letter to Health Secretary Steve Barclay urging the government to take forward recommendations outlined in the Health and Social Care committee’s NHS dentistry report, published earlier this month.
“The committee has rightly called for urgent and fundamental change. The marginal changes we have seen to date simply do not reflect the scale of the crisis my colleagues and millions of patients continue to face," Shawn Charlwood, chair of the BDA’s general dental practice committee said in the letter.
