From the latest Primary Care Bulletin:
Today the annual NHS dental statistics for England have been published. The figures for 2025/26 show a significant increase in the number of courses of treatment (CoT), up 6.2% to 37.6 million, and units of dental activity (UDA), which saw a 5.1% uplift to 76.8 million, delivered.
In 2025/26, COTs for adults increased by 6% to 25 million, and by 7% for children to 13 million – with care provided to children now back to pre-pandemic levels.
This equates to 18.8 million adult patients seen in the 24 months to 31 March 2026. In the 12 months to 31 March 2026, there were 7.17 million child patients seen. This was 40% of the national mid-year adult population for England in 2025, and 60% of the mid-year population for children.
There were also 3.1% more dentists working in the NHS in 2025/26 compared to 2024/25, up to 25,419 dentists and 743 more dentists (3.0%) than in 2019/20 (pre-pandemic).
Huge thanks to NHS dental teams for the hard work and commitment demonstrated in delivering more high-quality care and treatment to patients.
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https://www.england.nhs.uk/email-bulletins/primary-care-bulletin/
