Scots children ‘struggling to eat, sleep or learn’ as they wait three years for dental treatment

Children and young people in Scotland are being left struggling to eat, sleep or learn as they wait almost three years to receive NHS dental treatment, we can reveal.

New research shows many regions across the country have seen the lengths of delays almost triple over the past few years.

According to official figures released under freedom of information legislation, one inpatient living in the Borders was forced to wait 1,078 days – nearly three years – for treatment.

An outpatient in the same region had to wait more than two years, at 903 days.

Backlogs and competition for space

This year also saw an inpatient in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde wait 811 days, while an outpatient waited 772 days.

The health board with the longest average waits for outpatients under 18 was NHS Ayrshire & Arran at 259 days, followed by NHS Lanarkshire at 231 days.

Charlotte Waite, director of British Dental Association Scotland, says the Scottish Government must provide greater support to dentists facing patient backlogs.

She said: “These years-long waiting times mean children will be left struggling to eat, to sleep and to learn.

“Dentists in our hospitals are confronting huge backlogs built up since lockdown, while facing real competition for theatre space.

“For the sake of our youngest patients, ministers need to provide priority and support.”

Official figures show the longest waits for treatment for outpatients under 18 have more than tripled since 2019 in the Borders, Ayrshire and Arran, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the Western Isles, Lanarkshire and Orkney.

It has more than doubled in Dumfries and Galloway.

‘Languishing in pain’

Meanwhile, the longest wait for a young inpatient in Lothian increased by more than fivefold, shooting up from 12 weeks to 65 weeks.

The average waiting times for outpatients increased across eight health boards over that same period, while it increased for outpatients across nine.

The data was released following freedom of information requests sent to all 14 Scottish health boards by the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

An investigation by the party into emergency dental lines, for those not registered with an NHS dentist, revealed last week that across the seven health boards able to provide data, there have been more than 136,000 emergency calls since 2019.

That included 15,756 calls to NHS Fife last year alone.

A rotten path

Speaking as the Scottish Liberal Democrat conference continued in Edinburgh this weekend, leader Alex Cole-Hamilton accused the Scottish Government of leaving children and young people languishing in pain.

He said: “Children and young people need excellent access to dental treatment because establishing good oral health can benefit them for a lifetime.

“Unfortunately, sky-high waits like these show that the government is completely failing to ensure that provision is available.

“With the cost of dental charges having now shot up, people are paying more for less under the SNP.

“We can’t continue down this rotten path any longer.

“To bring down waits and get people seen quickly, the Scottish Government must rewrite the failing NHS Recovery Plan to prioritise workforce planning and boost the number of dentists taking on NHS patients.”

The Scottish Government was approached for comment.