I’ve searched and searched.
I can find NO report of a dental business closing anywhere. No doubt there will be some but some businesses, of all kinds, do close for a variety of reasons.
I did find one, above, expanding in the midst of the pandemic.
I can find roughly a zillion stories saying that many dental businesses might have to close unless they get more support from the Scottish Government.
None in Scotland seem to have closed finally during the first wave.
Of course, our NoMedia are full of stories:
In the middle of the BBC report, we read:
Prof Philip Taylor, of the Faculty of Dental Surgery at RCSEd, said that for NHS work the government was “providing very little towards treatment”. Fees are complex and can vary with each patient, but a dentist who fits a new metal crown for a back tooth on the NHS may receive a fee set by government of £80 to £100 – with the patient paying most of that. However, if the work was done privately, the RCSEd said the dentist could charge £300 to £400.
He’s in a well-padded bubble. He doesn’t see what he’s just said.
Read on to the bottom of the BBC report to see that £12 million per month is being paid by the Scottish Government to ‘support the incomes of NHS dental practices.’
Yes I am sick of the stories. No I’m not going to use that phrase. I avoid clichés…..’like the plague.’
Talking-up Scotland 
Ever since the 2006 Dental Contract was agreed Dentists have been gaming the system. Under this contract the NHS financially encourages dentists not to undertake work on children unless necessary but continues to only reward them for undertaking work on adults. For children this is a positive move.
However as the figures in the article above clearly show there is an absolute disincentive for dentists to offer NHS treatment to adults which is why so many practices now only offer private treatment for adults but continue to take children under the NHS. Consequently, families must decide whether to bite the bullet and pay privately for the parents in order to give their children’s teeth the best start possible. In large areas of Scotland and across the whole UK routine NHS treatment for adults is very hard to access.
There are many people and occupations hit by the pandemic that I have immense sympathy for but dentistry isn’t one. IMHO it is merely chickens coming home to roost as those practices that continue to do routine NHS adult work are getting financial support for the lost work.
The contract was negotiated across all 4 nations and the SG of the day bought into it. Scots are against the privatisation of the NHS by stealth but don’t recognise that it has happened in dentistry. I would hope that when the current pandemic is over that the current SG will revisit the terms and offer dentists the same sort of financial incentives for having adult patients on their books that are currently in place for children.
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Your information about dental registration in Scotland is a bit out of date
95.7% of the population of Scotland are registered with an NHS Dentist as of 30th September 2019. In 2006 barely 50% of the population of Scotland were registered with an NHS Dentist.
Summary of Dental registration published on Jan 20th 2020 by ISD Scotland
“”5.2 million people were registered with an NHS dentist as at 30 September 2019 (95.7% of the Scottish population), an increase of 2.3 percentage points since last year.
Registration rates were similar for children and adults (94.3% and 96.0% respectively).
99.3% of adults living in the most deprived areas were registered with an NHS dentist compared to 90.2% in the least deprived areas. This variation may reflect the use of private dentistry or the availability of free NHS dental treatment for adults who receive certain benefits.
Registration rates for children living in the most deprived areas were similar to the rates for those living in the least deprived areas.””
In the early to mid-noughties there was certainly a move on the part of dentists to move into private practice. The financial crash and the fallout from that introduced dentists to a harsh reality – when people are strapped for cash or lose their jobs private dental costs are the first things they cut. Hence the move back into the NHS fold in Scotland
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I stand corrected but my experience on the ground in The Stewartry doesn’t correlate to the official figures. In 2019 my dental practice moved over to adult treatment via a monthly plan with existing adult NHS patients who opted not to pay being seen by a single recently graduated placement.
I tried to move practice but none of the several that I approached would take me on as an NHS patient although all had space if I paid.
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Non urgent NHS treatment is held up in the pandemic. People are having to pay for it. Unless exempt. There are categories exempt. Low income benefits, pregnant women, students, under 20 year olds.
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More dentist practices have opened. There was a shortage of dentists. A new Dental training clinic opened in the NE. SNHS. Migrant dentists are leaving because of Brexit.
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The “Winners” of the Scottish Dental Care Group look more like rich business men than members of a caring profession!
Probably just off the phone to the BBC moaning about Scot Gov. Underfunding.
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I am sure there are dentists in the social circle John Beattie moves in – at dinner parties, in the rugby club.
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