Basingstoke MP Maria Miller is highlighting to residents that a network of urgent dental care centres has now been established across Hampshire for people who need help for urgent and emergency dental problems.
During the Covid-19 pandemic all routine NHS and private dentistry has stopped. However, the NHS is continuing to provide urgent and emergency dental care, both to NHS and private patients.
If patients have a dental emergency they should call the dental practice they normally attend during their opening hours for further advice. If they do not have a regular dentist they can search for a local dentist on the NHS website and call them. In the evening and at weekends patients can contact NHS 111 who will provide advice and direct patients to an out of hours service if necessary.
When patients call a practice, a dentist will carry out a telephone triage with them to assess their needs. The dentist will be able to offer advice or prescribe medication to relieve any pain or to treat an infection, or decide that they need to be referred for treatment at an urgent care centre.
Maria said: “The regional NHS has assured me that the whole population of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight is covered by urgent dental care, and that the locations across Hampshire have been chosen to ensure that everyone is within one hour’s driving time of an urgent care centre. They have also said that they are increasing the number of centres, as staff and the necessary PPE become available, and this will increase the number of appointments and reduce travel times for patients.”
“I have also been assured that all dental practices have the information they need on the correct process for triage and referral, so I would urge anyone who is suffering with dental pain to contact their dentist to get the treatment they need.”
“I am grateful to the NHS Dental team for Hampshire who have worked hard to get these urgent centres up and running, under difficult circumstances, and it is good news that patients now have somewhere to turn to for urgent care while their own dentists’ doors are shut.”