Current status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the General Dental Service, what action it is taking to reverse the decline in the number of registered (a) adults and (b) children participating in the service.
An assessment of participation - defined as the proportion of registered patients who saw a dentist in the last 2 years - needs to be seen against the backdrop of pandemic restrictions to March 2022.
Since April 2022, with the relaxation of restrictions, NHS dentistry has averaged more than 300,000 courses of treatment per month, an increase of 40 per cent in NHS dental activity compared with 2021-22.
The latest report from Public Health Scotland on participation rates (as at 30 September 2022) shows rates increasing for the period March to September 2022 following the emergence from pandemic restrictions.