Trends and inequalities in realised access to NHS primary care dental services in England before, during and throughout recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Abstract

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic triggered unprecedented disruption to NHS dental services in England. This work describes changes in realised access to NHS primary care dental services between 2019 and 2022, with a particular focus on geographic and deprivation-based inequalities.Methods Data from the NHS Business Services Authority and Office for National Statistics were combined to calculate the proportion of resident populations utilising NHS primary care dental services. These data were compared over multiple six-monthly time periods between 2019 and 2022, across several levels of geography and by quintiles of area-level deprivation.Results The proportion of the England population utilising services fell substantially after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, recovering to 75-80% of pre-pandemic levels in the first half of 2022. Substantial geographic variation was observed in the pre-pandemic time points and re-emerged as the recovery period progressed. Deprivation-based inequalities in service use were persistently present, although these were consistently greater in child than adult populations. While inequalities for children increased in the initial post-pandemic period, this pattern returned almost to pre-pandemic levels by 2022.Conclusions Socioeconomic inequalities and geographic variations in the use of NHS primary care dental services, seen before the COVID-19 pandemic, have re-emerged afterwards.