'My daughter faces a day off school to get to a dentist'

Patients across the Cowal Peninsula are struggling to access NHS dental care after one of the area's last remaining providers was taken over.

The new owners of the Hollies Dental Practice in Dunoon, the main town in Cowal, have told patients they will no longer offer NHS treatment.

Health officials have confirmed no other practice in Argyll and Bute is accepting new patients.

One parent said her child faced missing a full school day for appointments.

Locals have now started a petition, which has more than 700 signatures, calling for action to rectify the "wholly unacceptable" situation.

While NHS provisions are not being offered to adults, under-16s can access free dental care if their parent gets regular dental treatment or signs up to a monthly subscription.

The alternative includes a three-hour round-trip drive, or a ferry journey in order to access a dentist in central Scotland.

Vivian Crowe and her daughter have been registered at the practice for five years, since the local hospital stopped offering dental care. While her daughter attends regular check-ups, Vivian herself admits she attends less regularly, which she puts down to the the pandemic and the cost.

However, when attempting to book her daughter's next appointment, Vivian was told she couldn't as there was not an adult in the family either attending regularly using the "pay as you go" service or signed up to their £23 monthly payment plan.

She told BBC Scotland: "I want my daughter to be able to continue to go but currently I would struggle to pay.

"Going to the dentist now feels like a luxury, rather than the norm. I don't mind missing out on going to the dentist myself, but don't think my 11-year-old should miss out on treatment if I chose not to go.

"It's not really an expense I can afford, every penny is a prisoner just now. I never thought it would come to the point children couldn't access dental care."

Vivian fears she may be forced to fork out the monthly fee to register with her local practice, rather than face a lengthy trip to an alternative dentist.

She continued: "People have said they've tried Inverclyde, people were going down to Ayrshire or up to Glasgow just to get registered. As soon as they see your postcode it's not guaranteed they'll take you."

"I work full-time so it would be a day off for myself, and a day off school for her. You can't just nip there and back.

"And if she needs any follow-up treatment, that's more time off. My daughter's just about to start high school so that's not really something you want."

Another parent, Robyn Preston, told BBC Scotland she previously struggled finding a dentist who would agree to see her two-year-old son.

She said: "I phoned my health visitor and explained I didn't know what to do as nowhere would take him and I was told I would need try across the water for him.

"It was honestly so stressful trying to get him seen anywhere for all of a five-minute appointment to count his teeth."

She was eventually referred to an NHS initiative called Childsmile at the local hospital, who agreed to see her son "due to the circumstances".

Charlotte Waite, director of the British Dental Association previously told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland: "We are calling for there to be fair and sustainable funding of NHS dentistry to allow the NHS dentists and dental practices to function, to meet the needs of the population."

Last year, a BBC's investigation found eight in 10 NHS dentists were not taking on children.

In a third of the UK's more than 200 council areas, the BBC found no dentists taking on adult NHS patients.

Compared with other nations, Scotland was found to have better access to NHS dentistry for adults, with 18% of practices accepting new patients.

A spokesperson for Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership said: "The national shortage of NHS dentists has significantly reduced access to NHS dental services in many health board areas and across the UK.

"Dental Practices in Argyll and Bute have varied commitments to NHS dental service provision. As part of the dental contract, lifetime NHS dental registration is in place, unless a patient is actively de-registered. Practices are currently not accepting new adult patients and some practices have waiting lists for registering patients."