The British Dental Association Scotland has urged all politicians, policymakers and health practitioners to grasp the nettle, and refocus their efforts on bringing down scandalous waits for tooth extractions among children – currently the most common reason for hospital admissions among young children.
According to evidence gathered in a report shared with MSPs today, in the quarter ending March 2025, around 1 in 4 patients were waiting over a year to receive their dental treatment under a GA, often experiencing pain and dental infections whilst they wait. With the longest waiting times exceeding three years.
While the most common cause of admissions there are stark inequalities with children from the most socioeconomically deprived areas bearing the greatest burden.
Children with experience of tooth decay miss on average five more half-days during their first primary school year than those with healthy teeth. In 2023, over 6,500 paediatric dental extractions were carried out under GA, costing the NHS an estimated £8.4 million. However, it is very clear these numbers do not begin to capture the huge unmet need for these treatments.
The professional body stress these patients are falling victim to a failed recovery in elective care. Fewer patients are being admitted every quarter than pre-COVID, at a time when the number of patients with ongoing waits has more than doubled.
In 2022 the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care set out key targets for NHS Scotland, which included a target to treat patients waiting longer than one year for inpatient / day cases in most specialities by the end of September 2024. At a national level this target has not been met for these dental GA waiting lists.
The BDA stress there needs to be a ‘shared responsibility’ in relation to tackling these waiting lists, requiring a cross sectoral engagement within both dentistry and medicine, in collaboration with Health Boards and the Scottish Government. It says that enduring challenges associated with dental GA waiting times in Scotland underscores the urgent need for comprehensive reforms in dental workforce planning, appropriate funding, and service delivery development, to ensure timely and equitable access to these GA services for all patients.
Albert Yeung, Chair of the British Dental Association's Scottish Council said:
“We shouldn’t accept that tooth decay remains the number one reason for hospital admissions among young children in Scotland.
“Solving this problem will require politicians, policymakers and practitioners to take shared responsibility.
“They each have a moral duty to put prevention first, to keep NHS services afloat, and to ensure dentists in our hospitals aren’t left fighting for priority and theatre space.
“Failure to act here will come at a terrible price – a multi-million-pound cost for our NHS, and more yearlong waits for thousands of our children.”