North students help fill gap in dental care

Nov 29 2007 by Audrey Barton, The Journal

A UNIVERSITY is easing the dental shortage in parts of the region, thanks to a £1.25m investment.

Newcastle University students are expanding their services by offering free check-ups on Tyneside for 600 more people at the city’s Dental Hospital.

The expansion comes after the university was awarded £1.25m from the NHS and the Higher Education Funding Council two years ago to help address the national shortage of dentists.

The school expanded to train more dentists and the number of students taken on annually increased from 70 to 100 for the past two years.

Now the third and fourth year students are able to give patients a check-up under supervision and it is hoped many will work in the region when they finish their studies.

Prof Jimmy Steele said: “Newcastle is leading the way in this, as we are the biggest school outside of London, so we were immediately able to expand capacity. The free check-ups are helping the area and as students usually stay locally when they have qualified, it should help in the long term.”

The number of dentists in north Northumberland does not meet demand and dentistry is facing problems in North Tyneside with another practice going private and nine others not taking on NHS patients.

Prof Steele said: “These students are already highly trained and have the skills needed to treat patients, but need to gain greater experience.”

He said the check-up might take longer than at a dentist’s surgery and patients needing crown or bridge work were not suitable.

To register for a check-up at Newcastle’s Dental Hospital, leave a name and number on (0191) 282-5000.

If people who register have not received a reply by January, then Newcastle Dental School will not be offering them a check-up.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

We keep the NHS surgeries busiest

THE North-East has the highest proportion of adults and children seen by an NHS dentist in the country, says the Information Centre for Health and Social Care.

Almost 60% of adults and 74% of children in the region were seen in the two years to last June 30.

The report, NHS Dental Statistics for England, showed that nationally, 55% of the population – some 38 million people – were seen in the 24 months.

Of those, 7.8 million were aged 17 or under – 70% of all children.

NHS dentists saw 50% of all adults during the same period, which covered the launch of new commissioning and contractual arrangements for NHS dentistry in April last year.