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If you have an urgent dental need and are not registered anywhere then you can call NHS 111 and ask for dental triage.
You should be offered:
- Advice over the telephone;
- An appointment if it is needed (this could be outside of your local area)
- And treatment to resolve the issue you currently face.
If you attend a dental practice for urgent treatment, this may not mean you will be taken on by the practice in the future, but it should provide the care you currently need
Previously, NHS England guidance was that patients can call any dental practice with an NHS contract, tell them you are in pain and you may have been seen. This may still happen, but practices are not under any obligation if they do not have capacity.
If you are just wanting to register somewhere for routine care it is a challenge.
Practices are able to put out their own communications about this. We know from experience the best way to find out if there is capacity on waiting lists is by frequently calling to ask.
Patients should remove themselves from waiting lists if they are now being seen at another practice. Healthwatch Kirklees and Healthwatch Calderdale is not currently aware of any practices registering new patients.
Locala Dental Care provides specialist led NHS dental care and treatment for children and adult special care patients living in Calderdale and Kirklees
Their service user groups include adults who have:
- moderate/severe and profound multiple learning disabilities;
- moderate/severe physical and/or communication impairment;
- moderate/severe chronic mental health conditions including dementia;
- complex medical conditions;
- People who require bariatric facilities (body mass index over 40);
- For those people with a BMI between 30 and 40 there should be an additional health need, with the additional health need being the primary reason for referral.
They also provide specialist paediatric dental services for children with:
- moderate/severe and profound multiple learning disabilities;
- moderate/severe physical and/or communication impairment;
- moderate or severe behavioural problems;
- severe dental anxiety or dental phobias;
- children in need and with child protection plans, with additional or complex needs;
- looked after children with additional or complex needs or complex social problems
- other additional needs such as substance misuse;
- clefts, abnormalities of dental development or dental trauma of increased complexity;
- other complex dental conditions
They also provide:
- Inhalation sedation in central clinics
- Home visits for housebound patients
If you need any more information or have any questions on the topic, head to our ‘Contact’ page and get in touch.