Pressure is growing on the provision of NHS dentistry in Rye, as the town’s largest general dental practice struggles to recruit sufficient dentists to meet demand.
The recruitment problem is a national one.
In mid-December, D & S Dental Practice at 6 East Street was operating with three dentists after a part-time associate was recruited for two days a week, although the practice was in fact only providing 1.4 FTE (full-time equivalent) dentists per week.
Rye’s other dental practice, Rye Dental Surgery at 105 High Street, appears to provide one full-time dentist, with assistance from specialists to help meet demand.
To all intents, this means that Rye offers only 2.4 FTE dentists, when it needs at least twice this number.
While Rye’s dentists are holding the line under great pressure, there has been an inevitable impact on NHS dental provision. For example, D & S is not accepting new NHS clients and it’s understood that Rye Dental Surgery is only permitting children as new NHS patients.
In December, D & S customers were looking at a seven-month wait for dental check-ups on the NHS as the practice prioritises more urgent treatments.
D & S owner Dr Mano Soltan, who took over the Davies & Seeley business eight years ago, said it’s proved difficult to recruit replacements for dentists retiring from the practice — mainly because newly-qualified dentists favour better-paid private work over the NHS.
He believes that at least five — and preferably seven — dentists should be working in Rye.
“New dentists don’t want to do National Health work, they just want to do private… they [the government] have not made the NHS contract very attractive for the new generation.
“We’ve tried to recruit for the last three to four years… The old generation is leaving the battlefield: the new one needs to fill it,” he said. D & S is continuing its search for more dentists and hygienists.
A further challenge is missed and late-cancelled appointments. Rye Dental Surgery has recently begun asking patients to pay a deposit when booking.
Heading into 2026, it’s unclear what impact the NHS dentistry recruitment issue will have on Rye’s public dental services. If more dentists cannot be found, logic suggests there could be longer waits to receive NHS treatment.
What’s your story? Are you still receiving NHS treatment or have you faced difficulty booking appointments? Leave a comment below or email info@ryenews.org.uk
The national picture
In the year to 31 March 2025 there were 841 dentists working in Sussex, an average of almost 49 per 100,000 people. Rye has a greater demand for dental treatment owing to its relatively large proportion of older people.
Some 46,000 dentists are registered with the UK’s General Dental Council. But in England, while 24,543 dentists offer NHS treatment, this equates to only 11,000 FTE dentists working for the NHS. Not only is there a 19% shortfall of NHS dentists, but a severe problem with retention as more than one in five moved jobs last year. In England, over 14 million adults are reportedly without access to an NHS dentist.
The position regarding dental services in the UK is complex, with many dentists combining public NHS treatments with more lucrative private work. The British Dental Association (BDA) trade union claims that only 7% of NHS practice owners believe their remuneration is fair.
As far as the BDA is concerned, there is a £1.5 billion hole in the budget required to rebuild NHS dentistry. Payment for NHS services is simply not meeting dentists’ costs, it asserted. The union also argues that loss-making NHS services are being kept afloat by private dentistry cross-subsidising it to the tune of £330 million a year. Dentists are currently pushing for a far better contract deal with the government, so that NHS payments match dentists’ costs — which have risen substantially with inflation, they said.
However, for obvious reasons, the government does not wish to see public NHS dental services wither and be replaced by what it sees as expensive private treatment — which would be beyond many people’s means. Private prices vary widely, but they are typically several times more than NHS fees.
In a move criticised by the BDA, the Chancellor of the Exchequer recently called on the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate private dentistry pricing.
What has been mentioned before here is the increasing privatisation by stealth, by insisting patients coming for check ups see the hygienist separately ( a private charge of £50 or so), when Band 1 under the NHS is supposed to include clean and polish.