University of Suffolk dental training centre plans in Ipswich are a 'game changer' to help solve crisis

A training centre for dentists is to be launched in Suffolk in a 'game changing' plan to help ease the dental crisis gripping the county.

The dental development facility, which aims to attract and train newly qualified dentists, is set to be launched at the University of Suffolk's campus in Ipswich.

The 10-year project, headed up by the university and Integrated Care Board (ICB), aims to increase provision as NHS services at dental clinics across Suffolk have dwindled.

The centre, run as a social dental enterprise, would also solve issues with recruitment and retention of dental clinicians.

Professor Helen Langton, vice-chancellor at the University of Suffolk, said: “This plan will be a game changer in terms of future dental health provision in Suffolk and East Anglia.

"The University of Suffolk, in partnership with the Integrated Care Board, our region’s MPs and NHS dentists, is determined to provide workforce solutions to the present oral health crisis.

“This will provide changes in the types of workforce and what the current workforce can do by offering a more modern training integrated with wider healthcare, hence we will offer a new model of dental care, a new model of organising care and a new model of workforce.”

The project, which has been a year and a half in the making, has three key aims:

• The formation of a centre for dental development.

• The development of clinical simulation and treatment facilities to support the education and training of undergraduate students in dental therapy and hygiene and apprentice dental technicians and post graduate dentists as they progress their careers.

• The development of a dental social enterprise offering NHS dental treatment.

Dr Ed Garratt, chief executive of NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board, said: “This is an incredibly positive step forward.

“Improving dental workforce and provision is a priority for the new NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board, which will take on dental commissioning responsibility from April 2023.

“We know that poor oral health adversely affects physical and mental health. It’s also so important our children get a good start in life with regular dental check-ups to help them develop strong and healthy teeth into adulthood.

“We recognise that this is a medium term solution that will not fix the immediate challenges around dental access.

"However, we believe that our brilliant University of Suffolk will lay the foundations for improvements in the future and we thank them for their partnership.”

In May, SuffolkNews revealed hundreds of patients with dental problems attended West Suffolk Hospital’s A&E last year as they struggled to access treatment.

Healthwatch Suffolk said with the lack of NHS provision, people were ‘desperately resorting’ to contacting their GP practices and A&E departments – ‘placing additional pressure on already stretched services’.

Meanwhile, Dr David Brandon, an NHS GP and healthcare leader, who had teeth in need of assistance, talked about his struggle to find an NHS dentist and the reasons behind the crisis.

He said dental practices were 'small businesses facing rising costs, workforce shortages, increasing backlogs in the system, whilst fighting a tidal wave of growing need'.

The training centre plans have the backing of Suffolk’s MPs, particularly Bury St Edmunds MP Jo Churchill, who has supported the project from the start after receiving numerous complaints from constituents about the lack of NHS dental provision.

Mrs Churchill said: “After being involved in months of discussion with the Chief Dental Officer, the ICB and academia, I am delighted to see progress on our commitment to build dental capacity in Suffolk.

"This ten-year strategic project realised by the shared resolve of The University of Suffolk, in partnership with regional dentists, Health Education England, NHS England will start to address the oral health of our population.”

A launch date for the centre has not been set but it would be based at the James Hehir Building at the University of Suffolk.