Brand new dental school places in “dental deserts”

• First sustained expansion of dental school places in nearly two decades
• Targeted at areas where patients have struggled to access NHS dental care
• University of East Anglia and University of Portsmouth to each receive 25 new dental training places

Patients in so-called “dental deserts” will benefit from the first sustained expansion of dental school places in nearly 20 years, with 50 extra dentists to be trained in the regions that need them most from 2027 onwards.

The Office for Students was asked to allocate new training places, prioritising areas that do not currently train dentists, including rural and coastal communities where accessing an NHS dental appointment has long felt like mission impossible.

The University of East Anglia and the University of Portsmouth have now been selected to deliver this expansion, bringing dental training to regions where it is needed most and helping to ensure that the next generation of NHS dentists reflects the communities they will serve.

Each university will host 25 dental places each, as part of the government's drive to train more home-grown dentists and boost the workforce in regions where there are currently too few and patients are left in pain for months on end.

The allocation of these places will mean that all NHS England regions will now have a dental school.

Health Minister, Stephen Kinnock said:

No one in the 21st century should struggle to access basic dental care or, even worse, forced to take matters into their own hands.

By bringing dental school places to the University of East Anglia and the University of Portsmouth for the first time, trainee dentists will put down roots in parts of the country that have for too long been left behind.

These new places will help train NHS-ready dentists in the communities that need them most, meaning patients can get the care they need faster and closer to home.

Vice-Chancellor of the University of Portsmouth, Professor Graham Galbraith CBE, said:

Securing these places is a landmark moment for the University of Portsmouth and the communities we serve. The South-East has needed its own dental school for decades, and today that ambition becomes a reality. We are ready to train the next generation of dental professionals right here in Portsmouth- professionals who will stay in the region and help end the dental desert.

UEA's Vice-Chancellor Prof David Maguire, said:

UEA is very pleased to support the initiative to improve dental health, especially for those in the East of England, by training new dentists.  We have been working on this for several years and look forward to starting our new course in 2027.

The new places are part of a wider package of measures to rebuild NHS dentistry. The government has also invested in significantly expanding the number of places on professional registration exams for overseas-trained dentists, with up to 2,400 more dentists expected to be able to join the register annually by 2028 to 2029.

The government is also reforming the NHS dental contract itself, to reward dentists more fairly, prioritise the highest-need patients, and strengthen preventive healthcare.

Recent reforms to the contract - an important first step - will create new long-term treatment pathways for patients with significant dental decay or gum disease with improved payments for dentists, alongside requiring practices to deliver a set amount of urgent care and pay dentists more fairly for this work.

Through the 10 Year Health Plan, the government is investing in prevention, improving access to dental care, and making it fairer for clinicians and patients. Since coming into office, this government has delivered 1.8 million additional courses of NHS dental treatment - nearly half of which went to children - and is making sure that money ringfenced for NHS dentistry is actually spent on patients, by reducing the NHS dentistry underspend by millions.

Dr Katie Petty-Saphon, Chief Executive of the Dental Schools Council:

We recognise the challenges faced by patients in Portsmouth and Norfolk in accessing NHS dental care. The Dental Schools Council welcomes and supports the Government's commitment to expanding dental training places by 50.

The dental school community is already working closely with colleagues establishing new programmes, sharing expertise in estates, admissions and education.

We hope that the new dental school in Norfolk and the new programme in Portsmouth will strengthen regional research capacity and drive innovation in dental education and patient care. Expansion to the highly oversubscribed programme will only succeed with support from partners at both local and national levels, including adequate postgraduate training opportunities and continued investment in the clinical academic workforce.

Tom Whiting, Chief Executive and Registrar at the General Dental Council (GDC), said:

We welcome the expansion of dental school places in England and the support for two new dental schools.

We set the standards for training that leads to registration with the GDC and quality assure education providers and their programmes against these standards.

We are pleased to have supported the University of Portsmouth and the University of East Anglia to achieve dental authority status, and we will continue to do so, making sure both programmes deliver high-quality training and that every graduate is ready to practise at graduation.

We know that access to dental care, particularly NHS care, is the biggest concern for patients, and this expansion is a meaningful step in the right direction.

Neil Carmichael, Executive Chair of the Association of Dental Groups (ADG) said:

It is excellent news to see the DHSC moving at pace to action the additional dental school places that were announced in March. The ADG has been urging policy makers for some time that filling the gap in the dental workforce is the priority intervention needed to turn dentistry around in the UK.

It is good to see that the allocation of these additional training places will be in regions where patient access to a dentist is particularly difficult. We welcome this smart strategy of focusing on training dentists in specific ‘dental desert' areas, such as Portsmouth and East Anglia. This is a practical and targeted approach to tackle the workforce issue where it is most acute.

Dr Charlotte Eckhardt, Dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery (FDS) at the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England), said:

These two new dental schools will help to expand dental training capacity in areas that have historically faced challenges in access to NHS dental care. This is an important step towards increasing the future dental workforce and improving access to care for patients across England.