Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his timescale is for permitting opening of service dentistry outside urgent care centres as the covid-19 restrictions are eased; what the barriers are to that re-opening; what steps he is taking to tackle those barriers; and if he will make a statement.

NHS England and NHS Improvement announced on 28 May that practice-based National Health Service dental services could gradually resume from 8 June, giving dental practices flexibility to do what is best for patients and their teams. NHS England and NHS Improvement issued additionally detailed standard operating procedure earlier this month setting out detailed guidance on how dentists can restart face to face dentistry safely. NHS England and NHS Improvement dental guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/primary-care/dental-practice/

Dentists continue to receive full NHS funding with, during the restart period, no targets for numbers of treatments delivered or patients seen. This is to ensure there is no pressure to restart in a way that could conflict with safety. At the height of the pandemic NHS England and NHS Improvement set up urgent dental care centres (UDCs) to provide clinically necessary urgent treatment to patients. The UDCs remain open during the restart period to ensure patients can access urgent care and no additional pressure is put on the pace of the practice restart.

Many dental procedures involve so called aerosol generating procedures. This requires full personal and protective equipment during the pandemic period including FFP2/3 masks. The Government is working closely with industry, the NHS, social care providers and the army to ensure that personal protective equipment is delivered to those who need it. This includes supporting dental wholesalers to stock the equipment needed by general dental practice to safely support practices to restart face to face dental care.