‘Simply not good enough’ — Allister challenges Minister over NI dental hygienist gap

Wednesday 16 September 2026

Northern Ireland has just 154 registered dental hygienists — around half the number per head of population recorded in England — as North Antrim MP Jim Allister calls for urgent action to expand training and make greater use of hygienists within Health Service dentistry.

The TUV leader has challenged Health Minister Robbie Butler after being contacted by dental professionals concerned that there is no dental hygiene training course available in Northern Ireland. Mr Allister says he subsequently wrote to the Minister seeking action.

According to Mr Allister, the Minister responded that his Department is considering training options but financial constraints mean provision cannot be introduced in the near future.

The intervention comes amid wider concern over access to publicly funded dentistry in Northern Ireland and raises a separate question over whether greater use of dental hygienists could help prevent dental disease before patients require more extensive treatment.

Northern Ireland has 154 registered hygienists

The latest available General Dental Council monthly registration figures provide independent evidence of a substantial workforce difference between Northern Ireland and other parts of the UK.

The GDC’s August 2026 snapshot records 154 dental hygienists with registered addresses in Northern Ireland, compared with 9,594 in England, 794 in Scotland and 484 in Wales. The regulator cautions that its regional figures are based on registered addresses and represent a snapshot of the register rather than a measure of how many professionals are working in Health Service dentistry.

The 154 figure cited by Mr Allister’s constituent is therefore supported by the latest GDC data. The constituent cited 9,602 hygienists in England; the latest August snapshot records a slightly lower figure of 9,594. The broad comparison — approximately twice as many hygienists per head of population in England as in Northern Ireland — remains consistent with those figures.

No training course in Northern Ireland

Mr Allister said the issue had been brought to him by dental nurses and hygienists concerned about the absence of local training opportunities.

“Following appeals from dental nurses and hygienists about the lack of any training courses in Northern Ireland, I recently wrote to the health minister to highlight the importance of offering such courses here,” Mr Allister said.

“The minister replied to say that while his department is considering options for training this isn’t possible in the near future because of financial constraints.

“But that’s simply not good enough.”

The GDC’s current list of approved dental hygiene and dental therapy programmes includes providers elsewhere in the UK, but lists no programme based at Queen’s University Belfast or Ulster University.

Call for greater role in prevention

Mr Allister argues that expanding the workforce should go alongside making greater use of dental hygienists in publicly funded care, particularly in preventing tooth decay and improving oral health before more complex treatment becomes necessary.

“An NHS contract awarded to hygienists could enable them to provide fissure sealants, fluoride application, oral hygiene instruction and dietary advice for all ages. Oral hygiene education is hugely important for children – I understand that in some areas none exists because of lack of money and time.”

He added:

“The work of dental hygienists could be cost saving the long run. If they were given the full scope of practice they would be great advocates in the prevention of tooth decay.”

Mr Allister’s argument that expanding preventative care could ultimately save money is his assessment; no costed analysis demonstrating the scale of any potential saving was provided with his statement.

Concerns for elderly and vulnerable patients

The North Antrim MP also highlighted concerns raised with him about people living in nursing homes, arguing that poor access to oral healthcare can have consequences beyond teeth and gums.

“Of course, the dental health of the vulnerable, including the elderly and disabled, is also of prime importance. Access to an NHS dentist is an ongoing difficulty in Northern Ireland and hygienists report seeing patients in nursing homes whose teeth had deteriorated significantly due to not having seen an oral health professional for considerable time.”

He continued:

“This then impacts on their ability to eat and drink – and, consequently, their overall wellbeing. Visits by dental hygienists to nursing homes should be routine as part of any NHS contract.”

Wider pressure on Health Service dentistry

The intervention comes as the sustainability of publicly funded dental care is already under intense scrutiny. A separate Department of Health-commissioned Cost of Service Review published this month found that fewer than half of Northern Ireland’s population is now registered with a general dental practitioner for publicly funded care.

That review recorded the loss of more than 389,000 publicly funded patient registrations between the fourth quarter of 2022/23 and the third quarter of 2025/26 and warned that publicly funded dentistry may be “approaching a tipping point”.

It also concluded that current levels of public sector remuneration are unlikely to remain sufficient to attract and retain practitioners over the longer term. The Department has committed to a programme of dental payment reform, although Mr Butler has said the level of investment identified by the review is not currently affordable.

Allister calls for gap to be addressed urgently

Mr Allister said the disparity in the number of hygienists strengthens the case for action on both training and workforce planning.

“And shockingly, there also appears to be a vast imbalance across nations of the UK. A hygienist constituent has informed me that statistics show there are 154 dental hygienists in Northern Ireland compared to 9602 in England, representing approximately 2.1 times as many hygienists in England per capita.”

“Yet again, Northern Ireland appears to be left out in the cold – this inequality must be addressed urgently.”

The latest GDC data supports the scale of the disparity, although its August figure for England is 9,594 rather than the 9,602 cited in Mr Allister’s statement. The regulator also makes clear that regional registration figures can change and do not show whether individual hygienists work in publicly funded or private care.

The immediate issue for the Department is therefore not only how Health Service dentistry is funded, but how Northern Ireland develops the wider dental workforce needed to deliver it.

With no local dental hygiene training programme currently listed by the GDC and the Minister citing financial constraints on near-term provision, Mr Allister’s intervention leaves a central question unresolved: when, and through what route, will Northern Ireland train more of its own dental hygienists?