Somerset MPs have demanded the government take urgent action to ensure more of their constituents can access NHS dentistry.

Significant parts of Somerset are classed as 'dental deserts', with local residents having to either go private or travel long distances to access an NHS dentist.

Frome and East Somerset MP Anna Sabine organised a debate on the subject on Tuesday (April 1), calling on the government to provide additional investment to secure the long-term future of Somerset's health services.

The government has admitted that the current situation is "simply unacceptable" and that more investment was needed – but warned that there were "no quick fixes and no easy answers".

Ms Sabine was one of several Liberal Democrat MPs who shared personal experiences of NHS dentistry during the debate, which was held at Westminster Hall on Tuesday morning (April 1).

She said: "My grandfather might not have been a toolmaker, but he was a dentist.

"He worked near Slough, and as a child I loved visits to the dentist because we got to play in the electric chair and dissolve bright pink mouthwash tablets in plastic cups – and we always got a Lambrusco and lemonade afterwards, which was of course entirely appropriate.

"That regularity of dental treatment means that, at 45, I am lucky enough to have no fillings at all, and I am not particularly scared of dentists.

"Many children growing up today in my constituency are not so lucky: one in five children in Somerset has tooth decay by the time they are five."

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) recently received that 99 per cent of people in the south west without a dentist failed to secure the NHS treatment they needed within the last month.

Less than one in three Somerset adults (32 per cent) saw an NHS dentist between June 2022 and June 2024, compared to the national average of 40 per cent.

Just as damningly, only 42 per cent of Somerset children were seen by an NHS dentist between June 2023 and June 2023, compared to the national average of 55 per cent.

Ms Sabine said she had visited one of Frome's primary schools the day before the debate (March 31) – and that one-third of children did not have consent to take part in the government's supervised tooth-brushing scheme.

She said: "Sadly, of the 30 children in the classroom I visited, ten did not have consent for the tooth-brushing – some because forms had not been returned, and some because there was a parental objection to the activity or to the use of fluoride.

"To ensure that they did not feel left out, my dentist friend played a game where they counted their teeth instead.

"She said that, based on what she could see from that game, that group of ten children had 50 obviously decayed teeth, and one child had at least ten teeth that would need to be removed under general anaesthetic. Those children were four and five years old.

"It does beg the question as to why NHS dental services in Somerset and the wider south-west have deteriorated in the last seven years.

"It seems to me that that is symptomatic of a lack of investment in the region, in terms of not only health and social care but withdrawn levelling up funding and diverted rural England prosperity funding."

Ms Sabine said the failure to provide NHS dental appointments would cost the health service more money in the long term, pointing to an another case study from her own constituency.

She said: "A constituent emailed me in February to say that four weeks previously her husband, who is in his late-forties, had had a massive stroke. He collapsed into the sink in the kitchen and hit his face on the taps, breaking his teeth.

"He was discharged from hospital on 14 February, but cannot speak, is partially paralysed, needs continuing care, rehabilitation and adjustment, and is suffering dental pain.

"He is not registered with an NHS dentist and cannot afford private dental care, so they called 111 and, after four calls, drove to an appointment where the dentist was given just 30 minutes to treat only one tooth, which he had to remove.

"My constituents will have to call 111 again to get treatment for the next tooth. The husband needs dentures, is on soft foods and is still in pain.

"If we do not deal with people's dental pain, we get more pressure on the NHS in the long term: cancers go undiagnosed, and people are forced to use 111 or A&E.

"Parents and families across Somerset are crying out for extra support with accessing affordable and reliable dentistry, and access to an NHS dentist should be guaranteed to everyone needing urgent and emergency care.

"To catch up with the national average, Somerset needs extra investment, and it needs it quickly."

Sir Ashley Fox, the Conservative MP for Bridgwater, said that local colleges (including this in his constituency) had an important role to play in training dentists who could slot into local practices.

He said: "Somerset benefits enormously from Bridgwater and Taunton College, where nurses and midwives are trained.,

"Will she [Anna Sabine] join me in asking the minister whether dental hygienists, and in due course dental students from the University of Bristol Dental Hospital, might also train there and provide a service to the whole of Somerset?"

Adam Dance MP (Lib Dem, Yeovil) said: "The 700,000 new urgent dental appointments cover only a third of the need for urgent care, and are being funded by simply recycling under-spends in an already stretched budget.

"Does my honourable friend agree that what we actually need in Somerset is new money to invest in NHS dentistry, as promised at the election?"

Rachel Gilmour MP (Lib Dem, Tiverton and Minehead) has been pushing for more NHS dental contracts within her constituency, securing an upcoming visit from chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty.

She said: "The area around Minehead, in my constituency, has the smallest number of dentists in the country.

"Does my honourable friend agree that the fact that the area is both rural and coastal presents a unique set of problems because of deprivation and neglect, which means that the dental desert there is felt very acutely indeed?"

Gideon Amos MP (Lib Dem, Taunton and Wellington) added: "Many families have to choose between putting food on the table and paying to take their child to the dentist.

"We can expose the reality of the dental desert through more research, which I will be carrying out in Taunton and Wellington very soon."

The Lib Dems have been pushing on dental practices to be exempted from the rise in employers' national insurance contributions, which were announced by chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves MP at her October budget.

Stephen Kinnock MP, the minister for care, accepted that Somerset was "facing acute challenges" surrounding NHS dentistry, compounded by "significant workforce pressures" in spite of local effects to recruit and retain NHS dentists through 'golden hellos' and other measures.

He said: "It is a shocking fact that the number one reason for children aged five to nine being admitted to hospital in our country is to have their teeth removed, with a primary diagnosis of tooth decay. It is a truly Dickensian state of affairs.

"The state of NHS dentistry in Somerset, and the nation as a whole, is simply unacceptable and it has to change.

"The NHS dental contract simply does not incentivise dentists to do NHS work. That is the fundamental reason why we are in this bizarre situation where demand for NHS dentistry is going through the roof, yet there is a consistent underspend in the NHS contract.

"The Conservatives thought they were being terribly clever by structuring a contract in a way they thought would deliver value for money, but in fact, it simply failed to incentivise dentists to do NHS work and they drifted more and more into purely private sector work. That is the very definition of a false economy."

Mr Kinnock – the Labour MP for Aberafan Maesteg in south Wales – said he would be meeting with the British Dental Association (BDA) in the coming days and was confident that his government could deliver a fairer system.

He said: "We have taken intermediate measures, such as the 700,000 urgent appointments and supervised tooth-brushing, which we will work on at pace over the course of the coming financial year while also working on a radical overhaul of the dental contract.

"The NHS Somerset integrated care board has been asked to deliver 13,498 new appointments.

"I am pleased that work to improve access has also been taking place at the local level, and that Somerset ICB is opening three new practices in Wellington, Crewkerne and Chard. Those services will provide much-needed additional capacity in Somerset.

"Fixing our broken dentistry system… is an immense challenge – there are no quick fixes and no easy answers – but people in Somerset and across the country deserve better access to dental care, and we are determined to make that a reality.

"We are committed to rebuilding a system that puts patients first, ensuring that no one is left without the dental care that they need."