Hundreds wait two years for dental surgery

Others have been forced to pay thousands for treatment

People in need of dental surgery could be forced to wait for two years for care, according to a group of dental surgeons.

Almost two in five dental surgeons think the backlog of care caused by the coronavirus pandemic will take at least a year to clear.

And 19% believe it will take more than two years to get through the volume of patients waiting for treatment, according to a poll by the Faculty of Dental Surgeons.

A quarter of 300 dental surgeons polled said that the majority of people on their waiting list were children.

The FDS, which is part of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said that the latest waiting times data for the NHS in England show that 389 patients were waiting at least two years for oral surgery in June 2021.

There were a total of 227,750 patients on the waiting list for oral surgery at this stage, including 21,461 who had already been waiting more than a year.

Published: 26/08/2021 by Radio NewsHub