The government has announced a significant expansion of both domestic dental training places and the capacity of professional registration exams for overseas qualified dentists. Ministers say the changes will bring thousands of additional dentists into the workforce by 2028/29, with targeted support for areas described as "dental deserts" where access to NHS dental appointments has long been limited.
The announcement, made on 10 March 2026, combines two distinct measures: a near tenfold increase in exam places for overseas trained dentists who are already qualified but currently unable to practise in the UK due to limited registration capacity, and the first sustained expansion of domestic dental school places in almost 20 years.
Key Points at a Glance
- Up to 2,400 more overseas trained dentists could join the UK register annually from 2028/29.
- LDS exam places (final stage) to increase tenfold, from 180 to 1,800 by 2028, backed by a £420,000 grant.
- ORE clinical places to increase to 1,500, enabling more than 1,000 new registrants per year via this route by 2028/29.
- 50 new domestic dental school places to be funded annually from 2027, prioritising areas without existing dental schools.
- The Office for Students has been asked to target new places in rural, coastal, and underserved areas.
The Overseas Dentist Backlog
At present, thousands of fully qualified dentists who trained overseas and are often already living in the UK are unable to practise because the exams required to register with the General Dental Council (GDC) have insufficient capacity. The government describes this as a significant and unnecessary bottleneck, with the Association of Dental Groups estimating that more than 5,000 overseas trained dentists are currently waiting in the queue to qualify alongside approximately 2,700 dentist vacancies.
Two exam routes exist for overseas trained dentists to register with the GDC. The Licence in Dental Surgery (LDS), run by the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and the Overseas Registration Exam (ORE), administered by the GDC itself. Both have had constrained capacity, limiting the number of dentists who can register each year.
How Exam Capacity Is Being Expanded
Licence in Dental Surgery (LDS)
Backed by a one off £420,000 government grant, places on the final part of the LDS exam will increase tenfold, from 180 to 1,800 by 2028. The Royal College of Surgeons of England says this expansion will allow more candidates to complete the exam and join the GDC register, strengthening the dental workforce and improving public access to dentistry.
Overseas Registration Exam (ORE)
The clinical part of the GDC's ORE will increase to 1,500 places. The GDC expects this to result in more than 1,000 additional dentists joining the register annually via this route by 2028/29. The GDC's Chief Executive and Registrar, Tom Whiting, described the new contract as providing "greater certainty and scale" and said it represents good news for candidates who have faced repeated uncertainty about their ability to book exam places.
Combined, the two routes are projected to allow up to 2,400 more overseas trained dentists to join the GDC register annually from 2028/29, many of whom are already resident in the UK.
| Exam route | Current places (final stage) | Target places by 2028/29 |
|---|---|---|
| LDS (Royal College of Surgeons of England) | 180 | 1,800 (by 2028) |
| ORE (General Dental Council) | - | 1,500 clinical places; 1,000+ new registrants expected annually |
New Domestic Training Places
Separately, in what the government describes as the first sustained expansion of dental school places in nearly 20 years, an additional 50 dentists will be trained in England every year from 2027. The Office for Students (OfS) has been asked to prioritise these new places in areas that do not currently have dental schools, including rural and coastal communities that are disproportionately affected by limited dental access.
The Dental Schools Council welcomed the announcement, noting that dental schools are currently forced to turn away talented applicants each year. The organisation said it looks forward to working with the government on the expansion, with an emphasis on widening participation and ensuring newly trained dentists are prepared to work in the NHS.
Because dental training takes several years to complete, the medium term impact of this measure is limited. Dentists graduating from newly created places from 2027 would not enter the workforce until the early 2030s. The overseas exam expansion is therefore the more immediate lever for addressing workforce shortages in the near term.
What Stakeholders Said
Health Minister Stephen Kinnock said the announcement is part of a commitment to rebuilding NHS dentistry and ensuring that nobody in the 21st century is left unable to access a dentist. He framed the measures as laying the foundations for a future overhaul of the NHS dental contract.
The Association of Dental Groups called the announcement "excellent news", highlighting both the scale of the existing overseas dentist backlog and the number of unfilled vacancies in the sector. The association said it had been pressing for the exam bottleneck to be addressed and described the government's approach as "creative".
Eni Muco, an Albanian qualified dentist living in the UK who is waiting to sit the ORE, described the personal strain caused by the current system. Having qualified in Albania in 2013 and run her own practice before moving to the UK in 2021, she said that after seven failed attempts to book Part 1 of the ORE she has still been unable to sit the exam. She said that expanding capacity, fairer allocation of places, and the introduction of provisional registration would allow overseas dentists like her to contribute to the NHS.
Policy Context
The dental workforce announcement sits within a broader programme of NHS dentistry reform that the government has been pursuing since taking office. In December 2025, ministers announced the most significant modernisation of the NHS dental contract in years, introducing new treatment pathways for complex needs, embedding urgent care as a core requirement for NHS practices from April 2026, and improving retention support for dental teams.
In February 2026, the government broadened the scope of a target to deliver additional dental appointments, following advice from the Chief Dental Officer that the original narrow definition of "urgent" was preventing patients with serious oral health issues from accessing the additional capacity. At that point, NHS figures showed 1.8 million additional dental treatments had been delivered in the first seven months of 2025/26 compared to the equivalent period before the general election.
Ministers have stated that they intend to fundamentally reform the NHS dental contract before the end of the Parliament, as part of the government's wider 10 Year Health Plan, which emphasises a shift from sickness to prevention.
Key Takeaways
- LDS exam places will increase tenfold from 180 to 1,800 by 2028, backed by a £420,000 grant, enabling up to 1,350 additional overseas trained dentists to join the GDC register annually via this route.
- ORE clinical places will increase to 1,500, with more than 1,000 additional registrants expected annually via this route by 2028/29.
- Combined, the two routes could add up to 2,400 more overseas trained dentists to the register each year from 2028/29.
- 50 new domestic dental training places will be funded annually from 2027, targeted at dental deserts including rural and coastal areas currently without dental schools.
- The overseas exam expansion addresses an immediate bottleneck; the domestic training places will feed into the workforce from the early 2030s.
- The measures sit within a wider programme of dental reform, including contract changes taking effect from April 2026 and a longer term commitment to overhaul the NHS dental contract before the end of the Parliament.
📚 Sources & Further Reading
- Gov.UK – More dentists coming as government boosts number who can practise (10 March 2026) Archived copy (OGL): archived page
- Gov.UK – Patients to benefit from improved access to dental appointments (21 February 2026) Archived copy (OGL): archived page
- Gov.UK – Major boost for millions of NHS dental patients (16 December 2025) Archived copy (OGL): archived page