Regular dentist check ups are falling by the wayside as a quarter of people miss recommended check-ups due to cost and a lack of access, a survey has found.
However, employers could help improve the dental health of the nation by including dental health plans in their employee benefits, researchers said.
Denplan’s Oral Health Survey 2024, conducted by Deltapoll with 5,000 adults in Great Britain, revealed that 25 percent of people are not visiting the dentist every two years despite health recommendations.
Within the quarter of people missing check ups, 38 percent said they cannot afford to go, a rise from 35 percent in 2023 and 29 percent in 2021.
Almost a third (29 percent) said they could not find or access a local NHS dentist, representing a 12 percentage point increase since 2021.
Nearly 12m sick days
This is a problem for employers as earlier this year, a survey for Simplyhealth, Denplan’s parent company, found that 6 percent of people have taken time off work due to dental problems. Researchers calculated that this equals 11.7 million sick days a year.
The Simplyhealth research, conducted in May and June 2024 by Opinium with 2,000 employees and 500 HR decision-makers, found that more than a quarter (26 percent) reported that dental pain has affected their work.
Push to go private
Limited access to NHS dentists is driving a rise in the use of private dental care, at least for people that can afford it. The Denplan research results revealed that the use of private dental practices increased to 20 percent in 2024 up from 18 percent in 2023.
More than a third (36 percent) of private patients said they had taken this option because they couldn’t find an NHS dentist. NHS dental patients are also turning to payment plans to manage health costs, the survey showed.
Spread the cost
Denplan emphasised that NHS patients have to pay for dental treatments, and its survey found that more people are using health plans to spread the cost with fewer NHS patients deciding to ‘pay as they go’.
People paying for treatment as and when they need it had dropped to 54 percent in 2024 down from 58 percent in 2023 and 59 percent in 2021.
Almost 1 in 10 (8 percent) people now have a monthly payment plan for their dental bills, while the number of NHS patients choosing to reclaim the cost of dental treatment through a health plan or insurance plan rose to 6 percent in 2024, compared to 5 percent in both 2023 and 2021.
Improved attendance
The data also showed that people with payment plans, where they can claim back the cost of dental care, have a better rate of attendance. The vast majority of people with plans (87 percent) visit the dentist at least once every two years compared to 69 percent for those with no health cover.
Simplyhealth’s research from earlier in the year found that the majority of employees (72 percent) said their employer should take greater responsibility for their health at work.
A similar portion of employers (70 percent) said that the NHS crisis has prompted them to feel a greater responsibility to look after the health of their workforce.
More than half (52 percent) of employees said that if their employer offered a form of health cover, they wouldn’t need to take as much time off sick.
Catherine Rutland, dentist and clinical director at Denplan, said: “With many people reporting they can’t afford to go to the dentist, it’s imperative we support them financially, whether as individuals or through their employers.
“We hear from our customers that they really appreciate having the ability to claim back the cost of any dental treatment via the cover provided on our health plans, and those who have a payment plan with their dentist say it helps them spread the cost and budget for treatment.”
