New urgent dental clinic open in Plymouth

Aspiring dentists will treat patients

A new clinic is opening in Plymouth where aspiring dentists and dental therapists will treat patients in urgent need of dental care.

Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise (PDSE), a subsidiary of the University of Plymouth, has taken a 20-year lease on Plymouth City Council’s former First Stop Shop in New George Street.

Over the coming months, and subject to planning permission being granted, it will be revamped through a £5million project and become home to the new Peninsula Dental Education Practice.

Two floors of the building will be remodelled into treatment and consultation spaces, complete with state-of-the-art equipment and facilities and employing sustainable practices such as digital dentistry.

Once complete, it will offer appointments and an oral surgery service. This will enable up to 16 final-year students from the University’s Peninsula Dental School to work alongside specialists and other qualified clinicians to provide urgent care to patients who do not have a regular NHS dentist and have presented with pain, infection and trauma.

The new practice will go some way to filling the huge demand for dental care in Plymouth, with long waiting lists across all NHS providers and a lack of practitioners to meet the demand.

Professor Robert Witton, PDSE Chief Executive and Professor of Community Dentistry at the University, said: “We are proud of our record of providing first class clinical experience to our undergraduates in a community setting by treating thousands of patients who otherwise would not receive NHS treatment, but we know there is an urgent need for more dental care services. That is particularly the case here in the South West, and this new clinic – our fifth in Devon and Cornwall – could be a real game-changer. It will provide our students with hands-on experience that bridges the gap between their training and going into practice. It could also transform the lives of the extra people we are able to treat, with the real possibility that many of them have been waiting months or even years to see a dentist.”

PDSE, as the University’s student clinical placement provider, currently operates from four clinics across Devon and Cornwall, with two in Plymouth and one each in Truro and Exeter.