Letter: The NHS dental health system is unfit for purpose

The lack of a proper national dental service leaves charities to fill in the gaps, say health professionals...

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/12077501/Letter-The-NHS-dental-health-system-is-unfit-for-purpose.html

SIR – This is the third year that dental professionals have written to The Daily Telegraph, raising serious concerns that the NHS dental system in England is unfit for purpose.

The reason is that, far from improving, the situation has worsened to such an extent that charity groups normally associated with providing dental care in Third World arenas now have to do so in England. While we applaud groups such as Dentaid, which volunteer such services, its role serves to demonstrate the lack of a proper national dental service.

When more than 90 per cent of all dental diseases can be prevented, it is also a national disgrace that children aged under 10 in England are still more likely to be treated in hospital for rotten teeth than for any other medical reason.

It’s now time for the new Chief Dental Officer and our new ministers to be fully open and transparent about existing limitations, if they are serious about making real progress.

Dr Tony Kilcoyne
Specialist in Prosthodontics

Dr A V Jacobs
Dentist and Founder of GDPUK

Dr Martin Mayhew
Specialist in Dental Public Health

Dr Joanne Birdsall
Specialist and Consultant Orthodontist

Rakhshi Qureshi
Grant Matthews
Nick Thomson
Ian Wilson
John Valentine
Adeel Qutub Khan
Uns Moutiz
Imrana Ishaque
Joey Hossain
Chris Tavares
Diana Dumitriu
Dhru Ratilal Shah
Mariyah Nazir
Jason Greenwood
Simon Thackeray
Alex Keddie
Tam Haque
Ashwin Patel
Helder Esteves
Kizzy Mitchell
Ramesh Parmar
Sabrina Parmar-Kutty
Harmeet Grewal
Richard Bate
Ope Sodeinde
Nicola Bennett
Gurvinder Bhirth
Raunaq Shah
Khawaja Jawad Farid
Samira Ahmed
Dr Azm Ahmed
Kush Begum
Ferhan Ahmed
Geraldine Murray
Helmi El Sakka
Sapna Rana
Anup Patel
Gurpreet Dolly Dade
Harman Kler
Dr Hana Tofighi
Amie Patel
Eurico Martins
Victoria Holden
Gona Ali
Jennifer Bate
Khurram Qureshi
Raquel Valentim
Alex Keddie
Sita Emi
Nisha Ari
Carla Jones
Esha Vohra
Alix Furness
Aran Maxwell
Salma Daou
Tim Werry
Dave Bridges
Mayank Morar
Ajay Mathur
Zaki Kanaan
Ali Rifai
James Brazier
Laith Abbas
Natasha Vadasz
Rustom Moopen
Daniel Cheung
David Cheung
Helen Christie
Waseem Akhtar
Pardip Atthi
André Bergh
Vimal Patel
Khawaja Jawad Farid
David Mee
Sital Singh Chauhan
Andrew Legg
Amit Parmar
Reetika Aggarwal
Ian Jones
Ahmed Alshafi
Tim Fleming
Sarah Bingham
Richard Bate
Ann- Marie Bard
Veerusha Diah
Aakash Mavani
Helen Rimmer
Aliya Rashid-Taylor
Purvi Sharma
Muney Singh
Sameer Dossa
Julia Payne
Iain Soulsby
Kiran Rai
Caroline Wilkins
Shareena Ilyas
Sarah Susannah Bernice
Afsar Hussain
Suraj Patel
Kunal Shah
Saara Sabir
Nikki Davey
Haidar Al-Ali
Sanjeev Kapadia
Adam Lane
Priyesh Patel
Chris Harper
Laura Tattersall
Mojtaba Dehghanpour
Rosamund Cat Masters-Williams
Vijayabhaskar Somisetty
Saba Aslam
Martin Kelly
Iman Hashim
Amar Sundeep Arjuna
Zak Kara
Phil Reid
Tameam Alaubidie
Philip Barton
Shikha Attray Patel
Ben Behnami
Uzair Lone
Dimitrios Iliadis
Aneesh Dhunna
Finbar Bryson
Andrew Adey
David Flattery
Nabeeha Arshad
Kat Archer-Smith
June Bentley
Sheideh Zarbalian
Tej Mell
Sarbjit Singh
Estelle Los
Kaezar Bamrah
Thomas Liu
Jess Pascoe
Nishanth Selvarajah
Amy Louise
Amy McCann
Harpreet Chana
Peter Saund
John Lewis
Kamala Ebrahimova
Darshan Shukla
Mohammed Sharjeel
Rachel Morgan
Sukhvinder Atthi
Suril Amin
Jonathan Bankes
Minal Somaiya
Nisha Sanghrajka Majevadia
Jasleen Singh Bhopal
Mariya Khambati
Waseem Qureshi
Baldeep Singh
Vishali Hindocha
Rhianna Fulford
Gareth Jones
Kayvan Mirzai Nejad Kousari
Estelle Los
Radha Sisodia
Andrew Geddis-Regan
Elaine Mo
Sunny Kotecha
Tif Qureshi
Ashish Sharma
Ronak Patel
Sanjeev Kutty
Sophie Goodman
Aisha Ahsan
Keith Hayes
Bill Inness
John Peter Bates
Alan Rees
Paul Isaacs
Jim Page
Talat Algusane
Martin Bayne
Naveed Patel
Ioan Llyr Rees
John Phillips
Anya Sieinska
Chirag Kothari
Iain Campbell
Victoria Taylor
Danny Pretorius
Oksana Molodyka
Niall Hutchinson
Debbie Hemington
Duncan Scorgie
Rizwan Ahmed
Dipesh Kothari
Chris Chatham
Ajay Verma
David Taylor
Nafiza Jamil
Dilan Taylor
Sandeep Sharma
Binderpal Singh Bains
Manoj Brahmbhatt
Peter Doyle
Paul Woodhouse
Michael Crowley
Aamir Hyder
Ohsun Kwon
Peter Frost
Anthony Glover
Leigh Evans
Alan Aungier
Russell Gidney
Naveen Sunkada
Deb Hathaway
Hiten Halai
Niraj Halai
Hajirah Mir
Waj Khan
Yoganandda Kempegowda
Asim Mahmood
Furzana Hameed
Douglas Watt
Emma Idowu
Sophie Nicholls
XinHui Yeo
Philip Barton
Nandini Kapoor
Joey Hossain
Ammar Al- Hourani
Diana Nuca
Paul Mandon-Gassman
Jose Lage
June Bentley
Henrik Cloigaard Christensen
David Bevan
Afsar Hussain
Aman Bharti
Cristina Lima
Miranda Steeples
Mike Day
Meredyth Bell
Haydon Murr
Richard Vernon
Samir Shah
Nina Khaira
Dean Mooney
Jane Lelean
Hadi Rajabi
Pat Popat
Krish Mistry
Peter Orme
Jaimin Shah
Dave Sebastian Mathew
Sonam Haria
Jiten Chauhan
Bruno Lopes
Peter Farrage
Romil Vara
Eva Renuka Pathmananthan
Davesh Patel
Jenny Pinder
Ivan Gill
Govind Singh Dhaliwal
Priya Gaind
Rachel Derby
Claire Lawson
Sammy Ofori-Attah
Sue Pienaar
Angela Ly
Mohsin Hassan
Nick Ghateh
Ravi Ponangi
Arif Shaikh
Vijay Vithani
Julian Irving
Alan Ross
Ian Humphreys
James Mehta
Audoen Healy
Andre Haigh
Graham Porter
David Barnett
Barbara Jones
Steve Frost
Scott Aaron
David Robinson
Donald Sloss
Sylvia Andrews
Zafar Khan
Charles Lister
Robert Moxom
Tim Coates
Arthur Cooper
Chris Borne
Iqbal Fazal
Cheryl Colhoun
Madhu Kalakonda
Steve Conteh
David Obree
Mohamed Asif Mughal
Laura Masters-Williams
Hiten Patel
Uma Milner
Tejal Shah
Gysbert Pienaar
Elise Morgan
Omer Mustafa
Nisha Ari
Nicola Mulhaire
Preya Parmar
Puru Kaushik
Ankush Patel
Jibin Majeed
Ruksana Bhayat-deere
Noman Athwal
Shilpa Murthy
Raggi Munjal
Asif Mughal
Jai Basudev
Ammar Al- Hourani
Omar Salamat
Kunal Patel
Rachna Patel Dattani
Gareth Hargreaves
Harshil Patel
Anupama Jawahar
Charan Virdi
Tameam Abdallah
Shaista Siddiqui
Taghreed Ghanem
Dinker Patel
Virginia Lees
Sanil Shah
Sonia Alam
Eram Rabbani
Derien Pugh
Wasim Fazel
Shahir Shamsuddin
Rikki Dhody
Jamie Durrant-Fellows
Jan Einfeldt
Richard Furness
Trever Ferguson
Geo Morgan
Raj Kumar
Maria Kokkinou
Mark Tyzzer-Smith
Sia Maani
Robert Dyas
Selina Sufraz
Nikki Davey
Nirmal Shah
Nick Harrison
Nicola Bennett
Vijay Aggarwal
Arti Patel
Steve Thompson
Shona Achar
Trishna Patel
Kish Rajni
Hamzah Ahmed
Ria Chande
Nick Sheehan
Taj Badh
Subanghi Paheerathan
Talal Khalil
Pui Ling Tsoi
Kreena Patel
Amjad Ansari
Ammar Al- Hourani
Paul Abrahams
Maria Kokkinou
Aisha Siddiqi
Damian Kirk
Ivan Simmonds
Seville Haghbedeh
Daanish Chattaroo
Gwyn Pritchard
Cheryl Frost
Stephen Bazlinton
Phillip Gale
Julian Thornton
Ray McNamara
Kevin Gibney
David Winkler
Mike O'Reilly
Anju Mishra
Paul Renton-Harper
Sunder Dhamar
Vandna T Dharmar
Ian Beaumont
Andrew Browne
Rachel Harlow
Simon Portman-Lewis
Mary Robson
Rachel White
Iain Stewart Hawthorn
Phil Eisenberg
Craig Rushworth
John Morrison
John Barry
Carl Horton
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Kirk Young
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