Fresh appeal to fill free Whitchurch childrens dentist appointments
A north Shropshire dentists has made a fresh appeal to parents after it said take-up for free children’s dental appointments in the area was “surprisingly low”.
Spa Dental in Whitchurch took on extra staff in October last year to offer the new children’s NHS appointments on Saturdays and evenings, but they say numbers of new children attending the surgery have fallen after an initial surge.
Around 115 children came through the doors in the first four months of the year, but practice managers say many more children in the area may be in need of the free checkups.
Nationally, 38.7 per cent of children had not received the annual NHS checkup recommended in health service guidelines over the past 12 months, according to research commissioned by the House of Commons Library and released in September.
“From October 2023, when we employed a dental therapist to utilise the surgery for longer hours, and opened on Saturdays, we saw a significant surge in appointments for children,” said practice spokesperson Vanessa Giraud.
“But in spite of our efforts to engage with the local community, the number of new children attending appointments after January 2024 is surprisingly low.
“While we did see a short spike in children’s attendance, we know there are many other children who would benefit from professional oral health support. Preventive care is the key to keeping healthy teeth.”
Outreach programmes run by the practice have visited over a dozen schools in the area and run workshops with around 500 children, they say.
Earlier this year, the practice said it was concerned it would have to redeploy staff to areas with higher demand if appointments could not be filled. The group runs eight other practices accross the country, and says demand in other areas is generally much higher than in Whitchurch.
In February the UK Government announced an extra £200million of funding for NHS dentistry, which it said would see an extra 2.5 million appointments created in 2024 for adults and children.
It also announced an expanded water fluoridation programme, which it said could reduce the number of tooth extractions due to decay in the most deprived areas of the country.
