Key issues about dentistry in North Tyneside

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Healthwatch has seen an increase in the number of people sharing their experiences of trying to access NHS dental care.

Healthwatch North Tyneside worked with eight regional Healthwatch in the North East and Cumbria to gather feedback from people across the region on local dental care. In total 795 people responded, from late November 2021 until early January 2022. During the same period, the local Healthwatch volunteers contacted dental practices in their catchment, with a series of questions, to understand the availability of services. This regional report can be read here.

235 people in North Tyneside told us about their experiences of dentistry in this borough since the start of the pandemic, to date.

We have published our findings and recommendations for North Tyneside in this report ‘Key issues of dentistry in North Tyneside’.

Key recommendations 

• A single central list of dentists taking on patients that dentists are contractually obliged to keep up to date.

• Better Information for service users to improve transparency and understanding focusing on:
  • what being ‘registered’ with a dentist means
  • NHS contracts and funding of appointments versus private care
  • triage, the definition of ‘urgent’ and timescales for treatment
  • costs of NHS and private treatment and support available to manage these costs
  • timing of check-ups and advice on maintaining dental health.
• Greater strategic coordination of provision across the borough:
  • to give an overview of the services available to residents of North Tyneside
  • to share good practice and what works well
  • to facilitate signposting to other practices when appointments are limited.
• Focus on barriers to accessing dental care to address Health Inequalities.