A SENEDD report has warned that there is no clear picture of the number of people waiting for dental treatment throughout Wales and that the true scale of the dentistry crisis is “unknown.”

The Senedd Health and Social Care Committee report on dentistry warned that support cannot be targeted in the right place to tackle the backlog as there is no clear picture of how many people are currently waiting to see an NHS dentist.

The report calls for Welsh Government to explore if current levels of funding are sufficient to tackle the backlog, and to consider a single centralised waiting list across Wales, with health boards to implement their own interim central waiting lists by the end of 2023.

The report found there were long-standing issues prior to the pandemic, which it found had a “severe impact” on access to NHS dentistry.

Giving evidence to the enquiry, the British Dental Association said “the causes of reduced access to general dentistry, community dentistry and hospital dentistry can be summed up as chronic lack of investment in staff and infrastructure; and difficulty in attracting and retaining dentists and dental care professionals within the NHS.”

Committee chair, and Montgomeryshire MS Russell George said: “The pandemic has had a significant impact on access to NHS dentistry in Wales and we shouldn’t underestimate the negative effect it had on the workforce.

“Many people talk of a two tier system, where those who can afford to pay for private treatment do so.

“But are we in fact in danger of creating a three tier system?

“Where those who can’t register with an NHS dentist but can’t afford to pay privately are left with no access and can only rely on emergency dental service.”

Liberal Democrat Leader and Mid and West Wales MS Jane Dodds said: “NHS dental provision in Wales is not good enough, and this report raises really important questions about the reasons why Labour has allowed a two-tier dental system in Wales to develop, where the rich can go private and everyone else is left languishing on waiting lists.

“I am also disappointed to hear that relations between Welsh Government and the dental profession are at a low point when, to deal with both the effects of the pandemic and the longer-term structural problems in NHS dentistry, we need government and dentists to work together.

“Ultimately we need to ensure the resources are in place to fix this problem, including raising spend on dentistry per head to similar levels as Scotland or Northern Ireland as I argued for in the most recent Welsh Government budget debate.

“By failing to address this issue now Labour is potentially creating a longer-term problem.”