Dentistry
Many people have missed routine and preventative services during the coronavirus crisis. With many rural areas also losing their NHS dentists, there will be a crisis in the nation’s oral health that requires immediate action. Accordingly, we would:
- Launch a recruitment campaign to attract dentists back to NHS work, and renegotiate the contracts to make such work more financially attractive.
- Build on the decision to establish a Training Unit for the North at Bangor University to make it a centre of excellence for dentistry training for the whole of Wales.
- Restore mobile dentist units for rural Wales, bringing dentist services to communities that have had trouble accessing them in the past.
- Conduct a review of dental charges imposed on patients, establishing the extent to which this acts as a barrier for accessing treatment, and consider a range of options to replace these charges to encourage people to visit the dentist to prevent tooth decay further down the line.