NHS Dental Statistics for England: Patients Seen by Dental Practice

NHS dental statistics show the number of patients who received NHS dental care in England, measured at the dental practice level. The data is derived from FP17 forms processed by NHS Dental Services, counting patients whose last Course of Treatment started within the previous 24 months. The dataset is published by NHS Digital under the OGL-UK-3.0 license and was last updated on 2026-07-08.

Use Cases

• Analyze regional disparities in NHS dental care access based on practice-level patient counts.
• Monitor trends in patient engagement with NHS dental services over a rolling 24-month period.
• Evaluate the impact of policy changes on dental care utilization based on the FP17 form processing data.

Strengths

• Data is sourced directly from official NHS administrative forms (FP17).
• Provides a standardized 24-month rolling window for measuring patient engagement.
• Published by the authoritative national health statistics body, NHS Digital.

Limitations

• Row count and specific column definitions are unknown, limiting suitability assessment.
• Data freshness should be verified as the last update timestamp is 2026-07-08, which appears to be a future date.

Provenance

Source

NHS Digital

Collection Method

Administrative data from FP17 forms processed by NHS Dental Services.

Time Range

Rolling 24-month period based on the date of validation processing.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:31:27.502832; freshness should be verified.

Geography

England