The British Dental Association has warned the latest official data shows the clock is well and truly ticking on Health Service dentistry in Northern Ireland, with less than half of the public now registered with an HS dentist.
Published today, the General Dental Services Statistics 2025/26, also shows total registration levels hit 49% for the first time in a generation, with less than 44% of adults now registered, an all-time low. The professional body stress these figures reflect a disappearing service, one that is struggling to maintain its sustainability in the face of rising costs and wholly inadequate fees.
This leaves some parts of NI like Fermanagh & Omagh with only 30% of adults registered with a health service dentist. Treatments delivered by HS dentists are down by 4% on year, and 37% since COVID.
The BDA warned in April that new measures announced to help ‘stabilise and safeguard’ access to high street dentistry were insufficient and must be followed by reform of the dental payment system.
With typical practices now delivering HS care at a loss, the BDA stress a promised Cost-of-Service review – now thought to be awaiting final sign off - must form the evidence base for a new, fair and genuinely sustainable dental payment model. It urges Health Minister Mike Nesbitt to publish this review without further delay.
In a rare display of consensus in April, Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) passed an Assembly motion which calls on the Minister of Health to develop a new oral health strategy to reform dental services, address workforce challenges and expedite dental payment reform, they went further and offered to align themselves with Minister Nesbitt to secure urgent funding from the executive to secure the service.
Ciara Gallagher, chair of the BDA’s Northern Ireland Dental Practice Committee, said:
“New figures show that the writing really is on the wall for health service dentistry in Northern Ireland.
“The Minister knows what needs to be done.
“Underfunded and overstretched, practices are on the brink and cannot be expected to continue delivering care at a loss.”