Correction notice: Table 1f was omitted from the national summary tables
Table 1f contains data on courses of treatment by patient exemption type, treatment band, and financial year.
More details are available on our correction notices page.
Published 22 August 2024.
Publication
Dental statistics – England 2023/24 - statistical summary narrative (HTML)
Summary
This release is the first in the series to be produced by the NHSBSA. Previous releases were produced by NHS England (formerly NHS Digital) and can be found on the NHS England webpage.
The NHS dental statistics annual publication provides details of dental activity and dental workforce data for NHS dental treatment in England.
This release includes information on the number of patients seen by an NHS dentist, as well as NHS dental activity presented down to dental contract level. It also includes data on clinical treatments, orthodontic activity, patient eligibility and charges, and dental workforce. Additional breakdowns are provided at regional, local authority (LA), and integrated care board (ICB) level. Workforce data is also be provided down to sub-integrated care board (SICB) level.
You can find more details on what is covered by the data in the statistical summary narrative or the background and methodology document provided.
Key findings
In England in 2023/24:
- there were 34 million courses of dental treatment delivered, 4.3% more than 2022/23
- there were 18 million adult patients seen in the 24 months up to the end of March 2024
- total units of dental activity increased by 3.4% from 2022/23, up to 73 million
- there were 6.7 million child patients seen in the 12 months up to the end of March 2024
- 31% of adult courses of treatment included scale and polish
- 56% of courses of treatment for children included fluoride varnish clinical treatment
- there were 24,300 dentists who performed NHS dental activity
Resource list
NHS Dental Statistics for England - 2023/24: National Overview summary tables (Excel: 137KB)NHS Dental Statistics for England - 2023/24: Geographical Breakdown summary tables (Excel: 237KB)NHS Dental Statistics for England - 2023/24: Workforce Overview summary tables (Excel: 62KB)
Dental background and methodology document
The zip folders of CSV files in the expander link contain the most granular dental data for this release.
Metadata file for dental CSV files 2023/24 (Excel: 41KB)
Pre-release access list (HTML)
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Contact us
If you have any questions, comments, or would like more information you can email statistics@nhsbsa.nhs.uk.
Responsible statistician: Grace Libby