Thanks to 14 years of Conservative chaos, the availability of NHS dentistry has never been so dire.

I have 13 NHS Dental Practices in my constituency of Mid Cheshire. According to the NHS Find A Dentist page, if you are an adult, you need an NHS appointment and are looking to register with a dental practice, you can’t.

As of today:

• 1 practice in the whole constituency is taking on NHS patients, provided that they are under the age of 18.
• 2 practices are only accepting NHS patients who have been referred to them for specialist treatment.
• 2 practices have not notified the NHS of their ability to accept new patients within the last 90 days.

Dentists are self employed contractors. The renumeration they receive as part of their NHS contracts is based mostly on what band a patient’s course of treatment falls into. There are three payment bands which cover a huge range of clinical treatments that vary in complexity.

By going private at a time where people have never been more desperate for treatment; it leaves the clinical needs of the population left wanting. That is not the fault of the dentists. Like many professions, they want to be compensated fairly in a way that reflects their skills, expertise and cost of materials. If you vote for the Liberal Democrats at the next general election, we will ensure that as part of our fair deal, dentists will be remunerated in a way that reflects their qualifications and experience. No child should have to suffer with rotting teeth with nowhere to turn; and no adult should have to ponder taking out their own teeth with a pair of pliers, because access to emergency treatment has become so expensive.