NHS dental data monitoring report
October to December 2025

About this release

This quarterly release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides information about NHS patients dental care, including registration rates, participation rates, number of contacts and NHS spend.

Main points

As at 31 December 2025:

• 5,246,319 people were registered with an NHS dentist. This is an estimated 96.3% of the Scottish population, using the 2022 National records of Scotland population estimates. 3,251,908 (62.0%) of these registered patients have participated in NHS primary dental care within the last 2 years.
• Using the Scottish Index of multiple deprivation (SIMD 2020), children and adults living in the most deprived areas (SIMD quintile 1) who were registered with an NHS dentist were less likely to have participated with NHS primary dental care within the last 2 years compared to those in the least deprived areas (SIMD quintile 5). Participation rates were 77.0% compared to 87.6% for children and 53.3% compared to 62.5% for adults, respectively.
• 513,554 extensive clinical examinations were carried out this quarter.

This is a bar graph of the percentage of registered patients who participated with NHS Primary Dental Care, by patient age group and SIMD quintile as at 31 December 2025 in Scotland. The graph is split by adults and children. The quintile with least percentage participation for both adults and children is quintile 1. There is an upward trend of percentage participation as quintile's increase with exception of adults in quintile 5 which has a slight decrease from quintile 4.

Close

Percentage of registered patients who participated with NHS Primary Dental Care, by patient age group and SIMD quintile as at 31 December 2025; Scotland ¹

¹ Based on the month the claim was paid/authorised. Following completion of treatment, dentists have up to 3 months to submit a claim. As a result, the payment month may differ from the month(s) the patient had contact with NHS Primary Dental Care.

Background

This publication utilises the data generated from dental claims submitted by NHS Dentists to claim for treatments and associated fees. Most patients receiving dental treatment within the NHS are treated via the General Dental Services (GDS). For patients who cannot access care from an independent dentist the Public Dental Service (PDS) is available, and this publication includes relevant treatment data for both services.

The Statement of Dental Remuneration (SDR) lists all the Items of Service (IOS, i.e. treatments and associated fees) that can be claimed. On the 1 November 2023, the Scottish Government implemented an NHS dental payment reform, aimed at improving patient outcomes. As part of the reform, a new list of 45 IOS (Determination1) were introduced for general dentistry. This is to make the treatments available under NHS GDS easier for patients to understand and to simplify renumeration for dentists.

This publication focuses on treatments claimed under the new payment arrangements. However, data on examinations claimed using the previous SDR payment arrangements are also included, to demonstrate the continued level of activity being claimed under the old payment arrangements. Financial data reflects the overall level of claims, made across the old and new payment arrangements.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be May 2026.