More NHS dentists needed to avert major crisis

More NHS dentists are needed in Northern Ireland if a major crisis is to be averted, the British Dental Association has warned.

Northern Ireland's BDA director, Claudette Christie, said more needed to be done to change the way dental care is delivered.

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster on Thursday, Ms Christie said: "Health service dentistry here is caught in a funding system that does not allow dentists to deliver preventive based, holistic care to patients.

"Dentists, in their efforts to provide high quality care, are moving away from the health service. The problem here is certainly chronic and may well become acute."

Ms Christie said that leading dentists had long argued that politicians had not recognised the value placed on NHS dental services by patients, something borne out by queues outside dental practices up and down the country.

With more dentists turning to private care, patients in some areas of the province were now finding it difficult to get appointments, she added.

(MB)