NHS dental appointments: will more dentists mean better access?

Getting an NHS dental appointment could become easier under plans to expand the number of overseas-trained dentists able to register in the UK. But the change is a workforce measure, not a promise of an appointment at your local practice: registration alone does not determine how much NHS care a dentist provides.

The Department of Health and Social Care announced the expansion on 10 March 2026, alongside more dental school places in England. For patients weighing up private fees against continued searches for NHS care, the important questions are when extra dentists will start work, where they will settle and which services they will offer.

What happened

The government is increasing capacity on two examination routes used by overseas-qualified dentists seeking UK registration. It estimates that the changes could allow around 2,400 additional dentists to join the register annually by 2028–29. That is a projection of potential registrations, rather than a count of dentists already recruited to NHS practices.

A one-off £420,000 government grant will support expansion of the Licence in Dental Surgery, or LDS, examination run by the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Places on its final stage are due to rise from 180 to 1,800 by 2028. The department expects this route to allow up to 1,350 overseas-trained dentists to register annually by then.

Separately, the General Dental Council, the UK dental regulator, plans to expand the clinical stage of its Overseas Registration Exam, known as the ORE, to 1,500 places. This route is expected to result in more than 1,000 additional dentists joining the register annually by 2028–29.

Exam places and new dentists are not interchangeable figures. Candidates must pass the relevant assessments and meet registration requirements before practising. Increasing the number of assessment slots removes one obstacle, but the eventual workforce gain depends on candidates progressing successfully through the process.

England will also receive 50 additional dental training places each year from 2027. The Office for Students has been asked to prioritise areas that lack dental training and struggle with access, including rural and coastal communities. Our explainer on whether new dental school places will improve NHS access examines why student recruitment and appointment availability run on different timescales.

The background

Why registration matters

Dentists must be registered with the General Dental Council to practise dentistry in the UK. For overseas-qualified applicants who need to take a registration examination, limited places can prevent them from moving forward even when they have already completed dental training abroad. The expansion increases assessment capacity; it does not remove the requirement to demonstrate the necessary knowledge and clinical skills.

The government says thousands of overseas-trained dentists are waiting for the opportunity to take these examinations, many already living in the UK. This makes the exam route different from expanding undergraduate education: it concerns people who have already trained, rather than students beginning their first dental qualification.

Why a bigger register is not enough

A dentist on the register may work privately, provide NHS care or combine the two. Registration figures therefore cannot tell patients how many NHS appointments will become available. The location of jobs, working hours and arrangements for funding NHS treatment all affect what a larger workforce delivers locally.

There is also a geographical distinction. The registration changes concern the UK-wide professional register, while the additional dental school places announced here are for England. NHS dentistry is organised separately across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, so a UK workforce announcement should not be read as an identical access policy in every nation.

The government has also committed to reforming the dental contract by the end of the Parliament. That matters because the contract governs how NHS dental work is commissioned and paid for. Our guide to NHS dental contract changes and who could benefit looks at the patient-facing questions behind payment reform.

Will dental treatment become cheaper?

The workforce announcement does not itself change patient charges. NHS charges and eligibility for free or reduced-cost care follow national rules; private practices set their own fees. More dentists might increase the choice of available appointments, but there is no announced reduction in private prices or NHS charges attached to these exam places.

For patients, the financial benefit would come if an affordable appointment became available where previously only a more expensive option could be found. That is different from treatment becoming universally cheaper. Our coverage of the relationship between oral pain and dental costs explores why affordability and access need to be considered together.