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What should I do if a dentist is no longer accepting new patients?

NHS dentists are required by the NHS to indicate on their NHS profile on the NHS website if they are accepting new NHS patients. We check the NHS website daily to see which dentists have indicated they are accepting new NHS patients.

If you have searched for dentists near you accepting new NHS patients, and a dentist on your list tells you they are not currently accepting new patients, then please politely ask them to update and correct their NHS profile online.

We will then automatically detect the change within 24-48 hours. There is no need to contact us to let us know.

You can try calling the next practice on your list, or checking the practices on your list that started accepting new patients within the last two weeks.

Why does it say “Might take new NHS patients”?

70% of practices have indicated they are not accepting new patients and are excluded from our find an NHS dentist search results.

The practices that have indicated that they are accepting new patients may currently have have ‘no capacity’ for new patients.

How can practices be ‘accepting new NHS patients’ but have ‘no capacity’?

The NHS is providing some additional funding to help cover the extra cost of providing dental treatment to a very small quota of new patients each week. In order to qualify for the extra funding, participating practices are, in some areas, required to keep their status permanently set to “accepting new patients” – even after the small “quota” of new patients has been fulfilled.

The rationale for keeping all the statuses set to “accepting new patients” is to prevent any single practice from being overwhelmed with new patient enquiries. The result however, is that our lists of dentists accepting new NHS patients are less useful than they once were.

If you think it would be more useful for practices to update their statuses to show only when they have available capacity and quota to accept new patients, then please contact NHS England and your MP to let them know.

Help make Dental Choices better

Currently Dental Choices uses data self-reported by practices (via the NHS website), but we think user corrections and updates might be more helpful. See our GoFundMe for more details and how to help.

Can’t find an NHS dentist near you?

Find out what to do if you cannot find an NHS dentist taking on new patients.

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• How to register with an NHS dentist
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• How much does NHS dental treatment cost?
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• Gum disease – how to prevent and treat gingivitis at home
• Wisdom teeth – pain, problems, extractions and crowding
• Which drinks are tooth-kind? and which are tooth-cruel?