BDA response to Conservative Party manifesto

"Certainly when health services are under strain the failure to set out a coherent plan on prevention looks careless. Taxpayers should not have to pay the price for treating conditions like tooth decay or obesity simply because ministers remain unwilling to offer long-term solutions. 

"Pursuing better outcomes among deprived children could look like progress, but we will need more than token efforts. Devolved nations have lead the way with dedicated national programmes, and England should not have to make do with a patchwork of provision and unacceptable health inequalities.

"We have heard commitments to a reformed NHS dental contract since 2010. Reform requires nothing less than a decisive break with the activity targets that have failed the test on access and prevention so decisively.

“Red tape and overregulation are fuelling a crisis of morale within the dental profession. We can only welcome pledges to rationalise and update the system but, again, real reform requires more than a simple rebranding exercise at registrants’ expense. Within whatever regulatory system is envisaged we must have individuals who fully understand dentistry and the support that dentists and patients need from that system.