Bridlington: Town's dental patients struggle for treatment

People living in an East Yorkshire town served by only three dental practices have said they are having to seek treatment miles away, or even abroad.

David Moore, whose Bupa practice in Bridlington shuts this week, said he might go to another country for dental work as he could not register locally.

Meanwhile, Pat Reynolds said she had to travel to an NHS dentist in Leeds.

A government spokesperson said it would "incentivise" practices to take on patients needing treatment the most.

Mr Moore said after he had received news of the closure of his Bupa practice in the East Yorkshire seaside town, he had struggled to register with either another private practice or an NHS dentist.

He said it was "ridiculous" that he was now having to contemplate going to Hungary or Turkey for dental work.

"You can't even get [a dental appointment] for ready money. There are even waiting lists for people willing to pay to get on to see a dentist," he said.

"I think it's worse in Bridlington because there's a drastic shortage of dentists and those that are here are just not taking on any extra clients.

"Bridlington's getting bigger and we are having housing built all the time with new estates going up. Where are these people going to go?" Mr Moore asked.

Pat Reynolds said to see her NHS dentist in Leeds meant a 160-mile round-trip because she had not been able to register with a practice in Bridlington since moving there three years ago.

Ms Reynolds said her dentist had told her that "a lot of patients were doing the same thing, having to travel quite a way to get to a dentist".

She added: "We are looking at probably two hours' driving for maybe a 20-minute appointment and then the same coming back. It's a full day by the time we're done."

Only three dental practices would still operate in Bridlington - MyDentist, Neil Sinclair and the Bridlington Dental Studio - following Wednesday's closure of the Bupa private practice in Bessingby Way.

Claire Pearson, regional operations director at Bupa Dental Care, said the company had tried to recruit dentists to the practice for two years.

However, she said: "Despite our best efforts, the critical national shortage of NHS dentists means we've been unable to recruit permanent dentists to this practice.

"This means we're not able to offer patients the level of service they need and, after careful consideration, we've made the very difficult decision to close the practice."

Bridlington Dental Studio said it only saw private patients, but a spokesperson added that the practice had closed its waiting list after being "inundated" with inquiries.

The town's MyDentist said it had closed its NHS waiting list and there was a five-month wait for private patients.

A MyDentist spokesperson said: "There is currently an acute shortage of dentists across the UK and we are also experiencing this at our Bridlington practice where we have several vacancies."

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Neil Sinclair practice said it only treated NHS patients, but the waiting list had been scrapped as patients could wait "unrealistic times" for an appointment.

The Department of Health and Social Care said it had increased payments to NHS dentists for delivering complex treatments such as fillings and extractions.

A government spokesperson said it would "incentivise practices to take on high-needs patients who require treatment the most".

Dental surgeries would also have to regularly update information on the Find a Dentist tool on the NHS website to help people find practices taking on new patients, they added.

Follow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].