The British Dental Association (BDA) has responded to freedom of information requests from the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

The information showed that:

  • In the past three years, 1.8m people (more than a third of those registered) have not had an examination or treatment
  • Almost a quarter of those registered have not seen an NHS dentist for more than five years
  • The 95 per cent figure quoted by ministers even includes more than 560,000 people (one in 10 of those registered) who haven’t seen their NHS dentist for more than a decade

The BDA believes the Scottish Government needs to start quoting meaningful participation figures, given that lifelong registration figures are effectively meaningless.

David McColl, chair of the British Dental Association’s Scottish Dental Practice Committee, said, “Registration figures make for a nice press release but bear no relation to the crisis facing millions."

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