A report was put to MPs expressing concern that overseas-trained dentists are currently working in fast food chains in the UK, despite a House of Commons Committee reporting difficulty accessing NHS dental care.
The Guardian spoke to the Association of Dental Groups (ADG), who reported that fully qualified dentists from India, Egypt and Albania are spending months or years in the fast-food industry, as a lack of access to roles in dental care leave little other option.
This is seen as a significant problem whilst many people are in need of clinicians to support NHS care. A GP Patient Surgery ran between January and March 2024 found that just 3% of patients who tried to get an NHS dental appointment in the previous two years were successful.
When new practices have opened across the UK, or NHS appointments have been made available, many have queued through the night or early hours for a spot on their patient list – perhaps the most British response to the problem.
Dentists that are qualified overseas need to sit an Overseas Registration Exam (ORE), administered and delivered by multiple prestigious dental schools and institutions.
The ORE Part 1 examination delivered in April 2025 had just 600 places available. Three sittings of the ORE Part 2 examination, delivered across January to April 2025, had just 144 places on each.
As of September 2024, the GDC reported that there were 4000 candidates eligible to book an ORE place. Neil Carmichael, Executive Chair at the ADG, stated last week that this number was closer to 6,000 fully-trained overseas dentists waiting to register.
There are three examination dates for the ORE Part 1 currently available, covering August and December 2025, and April 2026. If these three exams are repeated every year without expansion, some clinicians could be waiting until 2028 for a chance to take part – assuming no more dentists join the waiting list, and no clinician retakes the Part 1 examination.
The ADG has called for reform of the ORE system. Whether change will take place, and if Government intervention will be needed, is still to be seen.
Previous Government interventions have been considered ineffective. The recovery plan for dentistry in England that was launched in February 2024 was deemed a failure by NHS leaders. The “Golden Hello” scheme, which offered a £20,000 incentive to work in areas needing support, appointed only 39 professionals to roles out of a targeted 240 across its first year.
If ORE examinations are expanded, opening up more spots to those that qualified overseas, one can expect there will be many more than 39 new professionals seeking to provide appointments to the general population.
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