Scottish Labour has raised the alarm as new figures show one in four NHS dentistry patients have gone more than five years without an appointment.

Information obtained by FOI has shown that a quarter of Scots registered with an NHS dentist haven’t been in the last five years – a staggering 1.3 million patients.

This includes an appalling 65,915 people under the age of 18.

This is in addition to the 270,000 patients not registered with an NHS dentist at all.

Scottish Labour has criticised the lack of ideas on dentistry in the Programme for Government in light of these figures.

Commenting, Scottish Labour Community Health spokesperson Joe Long said “It is deeply concerning that so many Scots are going for years on end without dental care.

“NHS dentistry is at breaking point and too many Scots are at risk of falling through the cracks – including thousands of children.

“John Swinney’s Programme for Government was an opportunity to set out new ideas to fix these serious problems, but it failed to deliver.

“The Scottish government must wake up to the growing dentistry crisis taking hold in Scotland and make sure that people in every part of the country can easily access affordable NHS dentistry.”