Current status: Answered by Maree Todd on 22 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it is still the position of NHS Scotland that people should receive a dental check-up every three months to two years, and what action it will take to support people who cannot access a check-up in this timeframe, due to a reported lack of available NHS dentists in some NHS board areas.
NHS patients are eligible to have a free dental check-up every six months if required. The time between check-ups can vary from 3 months to 2 years, depending on the oral health of the patient.
As part of the recovery of NHS dental services, on 1 February 2022 we introduced an enhanced examination fee for all patients, which included for the first time a fee for a child examination. The latest statistics from Public Health Scotland show that over 1.6 million NHS examination appointments were completed between April and October with an average of more than 300,000 courses of treatment per month, meaning we are on course for over 3.5 million contacts in the 2022-23 financial year.