Dentist academy in Bangor hopes to fill Wales' shortage
BBCA new £2.2m dental academy is hoping to fill Wales' "chronic" dental shortage by "doing something different".
The aim of the development, at Ty Glyder in Bangor, Gwynedd, is to attract new dentists and make it easier for patients to get treatment.
Betsi Cadwaladr health board has among the lowest dental treatment figures in Wales.
The recently opened facility will provide eight dental clinics and, from 2023, will house a dental academy.
This would double the capacity of the four clinics that were lost when dental practices in Bangor and Menai Bridge closed in recent years.
The practice has received more than 8,000 enquiries in three weeks and has had to freeze registration until more dentists are recruited.
"In Bangor we've had no NHS dentist provision for four years now, so rather than opening a standard practice, we've done something different" said the health board's Peter Greensmith.
The building, which contains a high street dental practice, training academy and a community dental service, will replace the former clinic at Ysbyty Gwynedd.
"The capacity which we bring through the practice was much needed, but we also needed something to attract people to stay in north Wales and to come and work in north Wales," explained Mr Greensmith.
Dr Joanna Smith has just been appointed as one of the new practice dentists, and one of the things that attracted her was the ability to work and study at the same time.
"I actually got offered the job today and got the great news that I'm going to be able to work in general dental practice here in this beautiful location, and do a master's degree," she said.
"As a dentist you tend to pick between going into general practice, so being like a high street dentist, or going into hospital. To be able to have almost a hybrid of both of those here is excellent."
The practice is owned by dentists Ravi Singh and Darren King, who also run dental practices and oral surgery clinics across Greater Manchester.
They said the new practice was the "culmination of a lot of hard work".
"The opportunity to work with Bangor University and the local NHS team is an exciting one, which will deliver significant benefits for the local population," they added.
Sam Rowlands, Conservative Member of the Senedd for North Wales, said the new practice should help ease "the major problems people have in accessing treatment".
He added that it was "concerning" that they have received thousands of inquiries in the first few weeks.
"Years of chronic underfunding and lack of planning has led to this problem and people are being forced to pay thousands to go privately or take extreme measures themselves."
Over the summer, the Welsh government announced that routine dental check-ups would be annual rather than every six months in order to tackle the backlog.
Responding to the new practice in Bangor, a spokesman added: "The new academy is part of a range of actions being taken to strengthen dental services across Wales, along with an additional £2m we're providing annually to improve access to dentists.
"The changes we've made to the NHS dentistry contract since April will also result in an estimated 112,000 new patient appointments this year."