Coronavirus: Tooth decay fears over dentist wait until 2021

Concerns have been raised that routine dentistry such as fillings will not be available to patients until next year.

Lowri Leeke, who runs a practice in Merthyr Tydfil, said that it was "too long", with holes in teeth getting "bigger and worse".

Senior dentists across Wales want plans for allowing practices to offer more than just urgent care to be sped up.

Wales' Chief Dental Officer Dr Colette Bridgman said she was taking a "phased and careful approach".

Ms Leeke and her colleagues at Deintyddfa Hapus (the Happy Dental Practice) in Troedyrhiw have gone from seeing 30 to 40 patients a day before coronavirus to "nearly none at all" now.

"It's been like this for 11 weeks - we can triage emergencies over the phone but the only treatment we're allowed to provide is extracting teeth, which not everyone wants but unfortunately there's no other option available for us," she said.

"It's very strange times, very sad - we miss our patients and it's difficult to adapt to what's going to become the new norm.

"I think routine dentistry - just fillings - won't be available until January which is a long time for both patients and for us."

She said many patients have been waiting since February for treatment and may not be seen until next year, adding: "We're used to wearing our visors, masks, gloves and scrubs and keeping everything sterile - I don't see why we can't start working as normal sooner than January."

She also predicted there would be a "big financial impact" for practices such as hers that see both NHS and private patients.

"We've got the NHS element that we're still being funded for, but the private element is 50% - a big chunk of my business income coming from private patients so I'm losing that," she added.

The British Dental Association said there was a "great, growing demand" for swifter action before 2021.

Dr Bridgman said the Welsh Government was "absolutely alive" to the concerns of her colleagues and timelines would be kept under constant review.

Under her plans, revealed in a letter to Welsh practices, a wider range of dental provision would return in three phases.

Due to the threat from coronavirus, dentists have been prevented from carrying out all but essential treatment since 17 March, with patients requiring riskier aerosol-generating procedures - such as high speed drilling - referred to urgent dental centres (UDCs) that have been set up across the country.

The first phase - from July to September - would see more of a role for UDCs but with patients re-assessed in the practices they normally attend.

In the second phase - from October to December - practices would be allowed to address the backlog of need from patients who require regular dental work, as well as those who have had non-urgent treatment delayed or postponed.

Only during the third phase - from January to March 2021 - would routine assessment and care be reinstated.

Tom Bysouth, chairman of the Welsh General Dental Practice Committee at the BDA, said this was "a great concern" to some in the profession.

"It's important to reassure people that dentists have always been very good at cross-infection control," he said.

"There are very good, robust policies in place to make sure patients and the team are protected."

Routine appointments are particularly important, he added, for screening patients for a wide variety of conditions - including tooth decay, gum disease and mouth cancer.

In England, dentists have been told they can start to reopen from 8 June - though arguably they are at a different starting point to Welsh practices who have been allowed to keep seeing some patients face-to-face throughout the coronavirus restrictions.

Dr Bridgman said she felt Wales was "further ahead", adding: "Dental practices are open and have been open, providing advice remotely. They've also been open to consultation already and have seen 8,500 patients since March, with a further 2,500 seen in UDCs across Wales."

She stressed that the timelines she had set out were indicative, and were to allow dental practices the time to prepare.

"At any stage if the first minister announces further easement of the lockdown we'll take them forward and we'll allow more central services to come online," she added.