Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments announced on 21 February 2025 on levels of severe tooth problems.

No assessment has been made on the impact of the urgent dental appointments announced on 21 February 2025 on levels of severe tooth problems.

The Government is committed to ensuring that people can access urgent dental care when they need it. The Chief Dental Officer advised that the national target, which was tied to the clinical definition of urgent, meant that some patients were missing out on treatment. In 2025/26, integrated care boards commissioned additional urgent dental appointments and there is now an urgent care safety net available in all areas of the country.

Since April, we now require all dental practices to provide an agreed amount of urgent care and are increasing the payments to dentists to undertake this vital National Health Service work, benefitting patients across the country.

1.8 million additional courses of NHS dental treatment have been delivered in the seven months between April 2025 to October 2025 compared to the corresponding months prior to the general election, nearly half of which were delivered to children.

Data on delivery of urgent dental care is published annually as part of the NHS Dental Statistics England Official Statistics series. These statistics are released each August and are the primary source of data on the delivery of NHS dental care.