Medically reviewed by Dr. Fatih Erkun, DDS, PhD, Prosthodontist · Last updated: October 2026
The NHS access gap, in plain numbers
In October 2026, Healthwatch England looked at how many people can get NHS dental care. It used official NHS figures, new findings from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and research by the Nuffield Trust. The results show that getting care depends a lot on whether you're already "in the system".
- Urgent care: out of every 100 registered patients who needed urgent dental care, 87 got an NHS appointment. Out of every 100 who weren't registered, only 16 did.
- Joining as a new patient: fewer than 4 in 10 people trying to get an appointment at a practice as a new patient succeeded (Nuffield Trust analysis of the GP Patient Survey, cited by Healthwatch).
- Overall: about 40% of adults in England saw an NHS dentist in the past two years, down from around 50% before the pandemic.
The barrier isn't only cost. For many people, it's getting through the door at all.
Who goes abroad, and why
A General Dental Council poll of more than 2,000 UK adults, carried out by Community Research, found that 1 in 20 had travelled abroad for dental care in the previous year. Among people aged 18 to 34, it was 18%, nearly 1 in 5.
Cost was the main reason people gave. Others said they couldn't join a local practice or get an appointment near home.
Why having no dentist at home matters
Together, these numbers point to one group of patients: people who have treatment abroad and have no regular dentist to go back to afterwards.
For them, getting the treatment right the first time matters even more. If a crown, veneer or the crown on a dental implant needs attention months later, there may be no local dentist who knows your mouth and can help.
So the most useful question isn't "how much does it cost?" or even "how good do the photos look?" It's this:
How likely is it that this treatment will need to be done again?
What a re-treatment rate is, and why it's more useful than "success"
"Success rate" sounds reassuring but can mean almost anything. A re-treatment rate is clearer:
Of the patients a clinic treated, how many needed the same work done again, within a stated period?
A good answer has three parts: a number, a time period, and a source. "Very few" is not an answer. Neither is a number with no time period: 1% over six months tells you much less than 1% over five years.
Three questions to ask any clinic before you book
1. What share of your patients need the same treatment redone, and over how many years?
Listen for a specific percentage and a specific time frame. Longer periods tell you more, because problems with crowns, veneers and implants often appear months or years later, not in the first weeks.
2. Where does that number come from: your own patient records, or an estimate?
A figure from the clinic's own records means more than a general claim. Ask whether it covers all patients or only some treatments.
3. When a treatment fails, what's the most common reason, and what have you changed because of it?
Every clinic has cases that don't go to plan. A clinic that can tell you the most common reason and what it now does differently is learning from its results. That tells you more than a perfect-sounding number.
For a broader checklist, see our guide: 8 tips to find the right dental clinic for you.
How we answer these questions at our clinic in Antalya, Turkey
If we ask patients to judge clinics this way, we should answer the same questions ourselves.
- Our re-treatment figures: based on our own clinical records, 99% of patients we treated over the last two years have not needed the same treatment redone, and about 97% over the last five years. These figures cover all our patients, not selected treatments. "Success" here means exactly that: the patient did not need re-treatment.
- Our most common reason for failure: teeth grinding and clenching (bruxism), which can crack or loosen crowns and veneers. Because of this, we give a night guard to patients who grind or clench, to protect their new teeth.
- How failures are reviewed: our clinical team meets every week. Any case that hasn't gone to plan is reviewed by our specialists together: prosthodontics, oral surgery, orthodontics and endodontics. It isn't left to the treating dentist alone, so what one of us learns, the whole team learns.
- Who you deal with: each patient has one coordinator from the first message through treatment and afterwards, so nothing about your case gets lost between departments.
Treatment plans at Dental Excellence Turkey are led and medically reviewed by our founder, Dr. Fatih Erkun, a prosthodontist with a PhD in prosthodontics from Gazi University.
Frequently asked questions
It's the share of a clinic's patients who needed the same treatment done again within a given period. It's clearer than a general "success rate", as long as the clinic tells you the time period and where the number comes from.
No. Also ask how the rate is defined, which time period it covers, where the number comes from, and what the clinic does when a treatment fails.
It depends on the material, the planning, how much natural tooth was kept, and your own habits and oral hygiene. See our articles on how long zirconia crowns last and how long veneers last.
That tells you something too. A clinic doesn't need perfect results, but it should know its results and be willing to explain them.
Key points
- In England, people already registered with a dental practice were far more likely to get an urgent NHS appointment than people who weren't: 87 in 100 compared with 16 in 100 (ONS data, cited by Healthwatch, 2026).
- Around 1 in 20 UK adults travelled abroad for dental care in a single year, and nearly 1 in 5 of those aged 18 to 34 (General Dental Council, 2024).
- Many people having treatment abroad don't have a regular dentist at home. That makes one question more important than price: how often does this clinic's work need to be redone?
- A clinic should be able to give you a re-treatment rate, tell you where the number comes from, and explain what it changed when cases failed.
Sources
- Healthwatch England, Are more people getting NHS dental care? (1 October 2026), drawing on official NHS figures, Office for National Statistics findings and Nuffield Trust analysis of the GP Patient Survey.
- General Dental Council public poll by Community Research (2024), as reported by the Irish News / PA (1 August 2024).
If you're considering treatment in Antalya and want to ask us these questions directly, contact our team.