Are Dental Implants Available Via the NHS?

There’s one instance where you can get dental implants on the NHS

Are you an NHS patient? Do you have missing teeth? Do you want to replace them with the leading prosthetics in the market, dental implants? We don’t blame you.But answering “Are dental implants available on the NHS?” is a little complicated. Because, in short, the answer is yes, you can. But that doesn’t mean you can stop reading, go running to your local NHS practice and begin demanding they replace your teeth with dental implants.Because the truth of the matter is that the likelihood of you receiving dental implants from the NHS is highly unlikely.With a high percentage of UK patients with missing teeth and only a small budget dedicated to supplying restorative treatments (which seems to keep getting lower), the NHS has to enforce strict criteria and prioritise patients according to their medical needs.

Only in rare circumstances do the NHS provide dental implants

Dental implants are not available to just anyone, so if you have missing teeth, do not assume that’s the only criteria you’ll need to meet to be accepted for treatment.The National Health Service states that they will only offer dental implants to patients when there’s an evident medical and clinical need, such as when a full set of teeth has been lost due to trauma or an accident, although conventional methods are explored first.Please note that even here, patients are not guaranteed dental implant treatment.The NHS would rather offer you dental bridges or dentures, which, if you’ve read our other blogs, you’ll know are not the best long-term solutions for oral health, mouth function, quality of life, or facial aesthetics.Thinking of going private? As many private dental clinics like ours offer dental finance, more and more patients are beginning to explore receiving treatment privately. Explore dental implant fees.

Scenarios the NHS might accept you for treatment

• In the case where you have malformed teeth or missing teeth that are caused by a genetic condition, like congenitally missing teeth,
• You have total tooth loss (edentulous cases) in one or both jaws and are an unsuitable candidate for conventional dentures. To be considered, a dentist must provide confirmation that all other conventional options have been tried, tested, exhausted and deemed unsuccessful.

Further eligibility considerations:

1. Patients must be registered with a UK dentist
2. You must receive regular check-ups
3. Have good oral health with no untreated conditions like gum disease
4. You comply with oral hygiene standards and practices
5. You are a non-smoker

Patients might also be further declined for dental implant treatment if they have poorly controlled diabetes, suffer from mental health problems, display poor oral and dental health, grind their teeth and suffer from bruxism, or have blood and bone disorders.

Other dental implant treatments not available via the NHS

• All-on-Four Dental Implants
• Implant-Retained Dentures
• Implants on a Bar (subperiosteal)
• Zygomatic Implants
• Implant-Supported Bridges
• Palateless Dentures