Professor John Robertson OBA

The above table from Public Health Scotland today, reveals a very high level of access to free NHS dental treatment in Scotland – 90% of children and 97% of adults with 100% access for some age groups.

Source: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/nhs-dental-data-monitoring-report/nhs-dental-data-monitoring-report-quarter-ending-september-2025/

When I searched for equivalent data for England, what I found shocked me. From the ONS in September 2024:

Overall, 52.1% of adults reported having an NHS dentist, 34.2% have a private dentist, 13.5% did not have a dentist and 0.2% used a dental hospital.

Females were more likely (54.1%) than males (50.0%) to have an NHS dentist, while males were more likely (16.0%) than females (11.1%) to not have a dentist.

Those aged between 16 and 24 years were significantly more likely to have an NHS dentist (70.9%), compared with all other age groups; meanwhile those aged between 25 and 44 years were significantly more likely to not have a dentist compared with all other age groups.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthcaresystem/bulletins/experiencesofnhshealthcareservicesinengland/september2025#dental-care

Imagine this was the other way round? BBC Scotland would have us sick to the back etc….