Gloucester has ranked seventh in a list of the worst areas in the whole country for finding a dentist.
The study by GoSmokeFree analysed the NHS Find a Dentist service, mapping out all dentists currently accepting children (17 and under), adults (18 and over), and those currently accepting new NHS patients and then creating an index score for each area to determine which postcode areas struggle the most to see a dentist.
Gloucester took the seventh spot on the list, scoring 1.42 out of 100.
Shockingly, Ipswich managed to score 0 out of 100, with just one dentist surgery in the whole postcode area accepting only children – with none accepting adults or NHS patients.
Across the whole of England, there were found to be just 26 dentists accepting children per 100,000 people, 19 dentists accepting adults per 100,000 people, and just 0.86 dentists accepting new NHS patients per 100,000 people.
Greater London – perhaps unsurprisingly – was found to be the area where it was easiest to find a dentist, scoring an impressive 99.87 out of 100. Greater London was found to have 8,740 dentists accepting new children, 6,749 accepting new adults, and 342 surgeries accepting new NHS patients.
A spokesperson for GoSmokeFree commented on the findings, saying: “In terms of the rankings, there were shockingly no dentists accepting new adults over the age of 18 or new NHS patients. York, in 19th place, only has one accepting new adults over 18 and one accepting new NHS patients, along with just four dentists accepting new children under the age of 18. As a result, it was seen that over 8.7 million people lived in areas without dentists that were taking on new NHS patients – meaning that roughly one in 12 people in England didn’t have a dentist accepting new NHS patients in their postcode area.
“The results of the study show that these issues not only affect rural areas, but also have crept into more metropolitan areas too, raising questions about the true extent of dentistry’s black holes throughout the country.”