Delay in dental treatment in Inverness highlighted by patient waiting a year

The difficulty in accessing dental care in the Highlands has been highlighted by a Beauly man who has been waiting a year for treatment.

Craig Levy said he has been waiting to get treatment at the Stoneyfield Dental Practice in Inverness, where he is registered with the NHS, following a check-up last September.

But the treatment has been cancelled twice at the last minute and the practice has also told him that due to the “overwhelming” number of emergencies daily and growing treatment waiting times, it has cancelled all check-ups until January 2025.

It comes as recent figures revealed more than 1000 dental patients in the Highlands have given up trying to get an NHS dentist over the last four years and instead have opted to go private.

• More than 1000 Highlanders are ‘handing over their savings in agony’ to access private dental care

• Dental practices in the Highlands are struggling to fill NHS patients in

Mr Levy (51) has been registered at the practice for about 10 or 11 years but said the dentists had changed several times.

He said he has paid for some work as the NHS did not cover everything such as having root canal treatment in a tooth which would have been removed otherwise and also paying extra to have white fillings instead of metal fillings which would be covered by the NHS.

“Last September, I got a check-up and needed work done,” Mr Levy said.

“They said it would be April this year.

“I needed two fillings and I have an issue with a tooth with big gapping - the crown has been falling apart and the plan is to build up the crown.”

But on the day the work was supposed to be carried out, he received a phone call to say it was cancelled because the dentist was sick.

It was rescheduled for August but again he got a last minute phone call to say it was cancelled as the dental nurse was off sick.

He has also received an email from the practice acknowledging his frustration with the situation of the shortage of dentists in the practice at this time and stating it is trying its best to find a new replacement NHS dentist.

“We are planning open days to encourage a new dentist to the area as this has been an ongoing issue for a long time,” it states.

“Unfortunately now with Stoneyfield Dental Practice due to the overwhelming number of emergencies daily and forever growing treatment waiting times we have to make the hard decision to cancel all check-ups and move them until to January 2025 onwards.”

This would enable a catch-up with remaining treatments and emergency appointments to be prioritised.

It states there is a locum dentist dealing with emergency treatments and that all broken teeth appointments will be seen and space has been made available for patients to have these fixed on the day appointments.

It also says children’s check ups will continue.

“We appreciate this isn’t ideal for people who have been waiting a long time and we understand it’s very frustrating but we are working tirelessly to treat people,” the email states.

Having been left waiting for his treatment, Mr Levy says he is coping with manageable pain.

“I have a dull pain,” he said.

“The longer it goes on, the worse it will get and I will have to get longer treatment.”

Figures for waiting times in NHS Highland reveal that between April 1, 2024 and June 30, 2024 that the number of patients admitted for treatment at community dental practices was 55 while the median waiting time was 16 weeks.

In July, a Freedom of Information request by Scottish Labour party also highlighted that at least 36,818 Scots have left an NHS dentist for private dental care since 2019 in a bid to seek treatment

In the Highlands, 77 people went private in 2019, 205 in 2020, 79 in 2021, 164 in 2022, 369 in 2023 and already this year 140 people have opted out of NHS dental care - a total of 1034.

Labour said the figures were unlikely to represent the full scale of the trend as some numbers were unavailable.

Highlands and Islands Labour MSP Rhoda Grant said the dentistry crisis in Scotland was widening health inequalities and needed to be urgently addressed by the SNP government.

“In Highland, people are on average waiting 55 per cent longer - or 11 weeks longer - than they did in 2019 to see a dentist,” she said.

“Those that are in pain will have their daily life detrimentally affected.

“However, we also know that poor oral health impacts on general health. Thus the impacts of this will be felt well into the future.”

An NHS Highland spokeswoman said: “The NHS Highland Dental Helpline provides up to date information on dental practices accepting patients for NHS dental registration.

“The Dental Helpline would also arrange emergency dental appointment if required.”

The contact details for the helpline are telephone 08001412362 or email nhshighland.dentalhelpline@nhs.scot.

The spokeswoman added: “A new NHS dental practice in Inverness opened in June 2024 and has a waiting list for new NHS patients.

“A dental practice is also due to open in Croy in the near future.

“Registration requests can be made via their website at Croy-dental.co.uk.”

The Inverness Courier has sought comment from the Stoneyfield Dental Practice.