One in eight people in Kent and Medway do not have a dentist – which is the highest rate across the South East of England.

The new figures have been released in the Office for National Statistics Health Insight Survey.

This is the same as the national average for the country at 12.2%.

One dentist believes the reason for this is a drop in the workforce.

Dr Alfred Kolozsvari, who owns High Street Medical Dental in Gillingham says the practice currently has more than 1,000 people on its waiting list.

The dentist said: “Ever since the pandemic, fewer dentists are available as a workforce nationally – but especially in Kent.

“We have noticed that a number of dentists have either retired or moved into the private sector.

“We are trying to recruit more dentists but it’s hard to do.

“We have dentists in the country that are overseas qualified but it’s a long process for the General Dentist Council (GDC) to acknowledge their qualifications.

“So at this point in time they work as and are registered as therapists.”

Dentists whose qualifications are not recognised for the purposes of UK registration can apply to sit the Overseas Registration Examination (ORE), which allows them to practice dentistry in the country.

The ORE tests the knowledge and skills of overseas qualified dentists and is made up of two parts.

Dr Kolozsvari says these exams can take up to 18 months to complete.

He says the GDC needs to speed up the time it takes to process applications for people to become registered as a dentist.

He added: “I think there are enough incentives to get people to work as dentists in Kent, it’s just that the workforce is just not available.

“The number of students coming from universities has also decreased.”

Olanrewaju Odunowo, 35, says he has “never used a dentist” as he has been “struggling to find one”.

Andrew Roscow, 39, has been at the same dentist since he was a child but says when he was unable to get appointments he tried going elsewhere which was “very, very difficult”.

Sophie Bell, 19, added: “At the moment, it’s been quite hard because [my dentist] is switching from NHS to private.

“They’ve been putting the NHS patients back and prioritising the private ones”.

However, Sydney Lucking says he finds it “quite easy to get an appointment” at his practice.

The 77-year-old explained: “It’s pretty good. I’ve had two cancellations recently but they were both rebooked.”

Deputy Leader of Medway Council Councillor Teresa Murray explained: “The issue is that if you live in a rural area, your access is less available than if you live in a town.

“But in some deprived parts of our towns where the population is quite dense there are fewer dentists per head of the population – and that’s what we really need to tackle.

“We have talked about whether we could get a school of dentistry as part of one of our universities because we haven’t got that on our local campus.

“I think it’s about working individually with our dentists and seeing how things are going.

“One of the things that we can do through our public health team is to signpost people to dentists that we know are still taking NHS patients.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “It is unacceptable to this government that so many people are struggling to find an NHS dentist.

“We are committed to rebuilding the sector, but it will take time.

“We will start with an extra 700,000 urgent dentistry appointments to help those who need it most, and we will increase access by reforming the dental contract to make NHS work more appealing to dentists.”

A spokesperson for the GDC said: “We very much want to increase the capacity of the ORE and we have plans in place to do so.

“We are going through procurement with new suppliers, and we expect this to show a positive change in capacity in 2025.

“The GDC and the government have a shared interest in making dentistry work in the UK.

“One of the things that gets in the way is old-fashioned legislation and we welcome continuing to work with governments across the UK to improve these.”