Somerset NHS dentistry improves but MPs demand urgent reform
By Laura Linham 28th Jun 2026
Somerset's NHS dental crisis is easing — but not enough to end the pain for thousands of patients still struggling to get treatment.
New figures from NHS Somerset show dental teams carried out around 3% more NHS work in 2025/26 than the previous year, ending years of falling activity since the pandemic. But the improvement comes with a blunt caveat: NHS Somerset says available funding is still only expected to support around half of the county's residents.
The number of "units of dental activity", known as UDAs, delivered in Somerset rose by about 10,000 to 360,000 in 2025/26. UDAs are the national payment measure for NHS dental work, with more complex treatment earning more units.
The rise follows the opening of three new NHS dental practices commissioned by NHS Somerset in Wellington, Chard and Crewkerne. Together, they are expected to bring NHS dentistry to an additional 20,000 people and deliver 61,000 UDAs a year.
But the numbers land in a county where NHS dentistry has already become a political flashpoint. Somerset has been described as a "dental desert", with MPs warning that residents have been left paying privately, travelling long distances or, in the worst cases, going without care.
Yeovil MP Adam Dance opened a House of Commons debate on Monday, 15 June, saying the situation resembled "a Charles Dickens novel". He told MPs that 56% of children in Somerset did not see an NHS dentist in 2025.
Mr Dance said he had heard directly from parents whose children had gone to hospital with dental issues. He also told MPs: "One local told me that her 86-year-old father was in so much pain that he pulled out his own teeth because he could not get dental treatment."
The Yeovil MP welcomed new NHS dental appointments in his constituency, including new practices in Chard and Crewkerne. But he said the current NHS dental contract, which dates back to 2006, "just does not work" and prevents the system from properly prioritising local patients.
He said dentists can be penalised by the structure of the contract if they exceed their NHS quota, because they are not paid for extra work beyond the contracted level. He also criticised rules which mean people do not register with an NHS dentist in the same way they register with a GP.
Sir Ashley Fox, the Conservative MP for Bridgwater, also called for faster reform. He acknowledged that previous Conservative governments had not done enough, but said meaningful change now had to be treated as a priority.
Gideon Amos, Liberal Democrat MP for Taunton and Wellington, welcomed the extra appointments in Wellington but said they came "against a background of limited resources and a broken funding system". He said some hard-pressed parents were paying privately because they could not access NHS dentists.
Tessa Munt, Liberal Democrat MP for Wells and Mendip Hills, said she welcomed plans to require newly qualified dentists to work in the NHS for three years. But she warned the crisis was happening now and said the measure should start sooner.
Care minister Stephen Kinnock described Somerset as "an outlier" with "significant problems" in access to dentistry. He said the government was committed to reforming the dental contract within this parliament, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, prevention and fairer rewards for dentists.
NHS Somerset says it is already taking local action. The Wellington practice opened in October 2025, followed by Chard in December 2025 and Crewkerne in May 2026.
The ICB is also paying local dentists up to 25% more to deliver NHS care by raising the minimum amount paid for each UDA. It says more urgent appointments are being made available through local incentives and NHS 111.
Other measures include investment in recruitment, retention and training, the use of "golden hellos" to attract dentists, and expanded prevention work. That includes supervised toothbrushing being offered to all primary schools across Somerset.
Sukeina Kassam, director of primary care at NHS Somerset, said: "Improving access to NHS dentistry is one of our top priorities as we know it is hugely important to local people. It is great to see our improvement programme is leading to better access and more NHS dental care being provided in Somerset."
David McClay, place director for Somerset, said: "We know there is more to do and, following the first wave of new NHS practices we are now identifying our next areas of focus. Measures could include encouraging existing practices to deliver more NHS activity or developing proposals for more new NHS practices."
The central question for patients is now whether the improvement can be felt beyond the spreadsheets. More NHS dental work is being done, more practices have opened, and the direction of travel is better — but Somerset still does not have enough funded NHS dentistry for everyone who needs it.
Anyone needing emergency or urgent dental care should call NHS 111 or use NHS 111 online.
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