Immediate considerations for sustainable oral health workforce expansion

Key points

• Dental schools are committed to contributing to improving oral healthcare provision in the UK. With appropriate funding, and some reconfiguration of educational delivery, this will be possible through increasing the number of graduating oral health professionals. This may provide a transformative opportunity for dental education across the UK.

• New, dedicated capital funding should be directed towards maintaining and improving existing buildings and clinical placement capacity.

• Through considerable funding and planning, the career progression and working culture which new graduates seek can be enabled. This includes, but is not limited to, NHS contractual reform.

• Devolved nations' long-term workforce plans should be released as soon as possible.