Dentists in Bury are once again accepting patients after practitioners warned of a rise in “DIY dentistry”.

Surgeries have once again begun taking on NHS adult patients more than a year after many practices stopped taking on appointments on the health service.

In August last year, the Bury Times revealed of 17 practices which could be contacted for comment none were taking on new NHS patients, with some saying they did not expect to be able to take on new patients for months.

Now, practices across the borough have announced they are once again accepting adult patients entitled to free dental care, as well as patients aged 17 and under.

Dentists accepting NHS dental patients include, myDentist, St Mary’s Place, Synergy Dental Practice, The Dental Practice, Knowsley Street, The Dental Practice, Walmsley Road, myDentist, Parsonnage Street, Bury Dental Practice and The Dental Practice, Mile Lane.

But some surgeries are still unable to take on new patients. According to the NHS these include Tottington Dental Practice and The Dental Practice on Ainsworth Road.

In all, 12 practices in the borough are accepting new adult patients as well as those aged 17 and under.

One practice, Inglewood House Dental practice in Whitefield, is not accepting adults but will accept new patients aged 17 and under.

The latest NHS figures, taken between, January and March 2023, more than 21,000 people attempted to secure an NHS dentist appointment within the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership in the last two years. Of these, 16,584 were successful.

Overall, patients in Greater Manchester have had a 79 per cent success rate in booking appointments, while 21 per cent failed to obtain an appointment over the last 2 years.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We are making progress to boost NHS dental services with 23 per cent more courses of treatment, meaning 1.7m more adults and 800,000 more children received NHS dental care.

“We fund more than £3bn of NHS dentistry a year, have announced plans to increase dental training places by 40 per cent and last week we launched a consultation to better utilise the skills of dental hygienists and therapists.”