30 Jun 2026
The University of Lincoln‘s campaign to establish a dental school in the county has continued to gather momentum following provisional approval from the General Dental Council for its new BSc Dental Hygiene and Therapy programme, including its Gateway Year. Recruitment is already underway for the first intake of students starting in September 2026.
The milestone follows the University’s Dental Desserts Tour, part of the University’s Stronger Roots campaign, which earlier this month visited communities across Lincolnshire before taking its message to Westminster.
With a playful nod to Lincolnshire’s status as a “dental desert”, the tour used a branded ice cream van to start conversations about a serious issue: the shortage of NHS dental care in rural and coastal communities and the need to train and retain local dentists to address gaps in provision.
Across the county, the impact of those shortages is being felt by residents struggling to access care and by children affected by preventable tooth decay. Just one in four people in Lincolnshire can access NHS dental care, while parts of Greater Lincolnshire have as few as 32 dentists per 100,000 people, among the lowest NHS dentist provision rates in the country. In Boston, where access challenges are particularly acute, four in ten five-year-olds show signs of dental decay, compared with a national figure of 27%.
A recent report from the Dental Schools Council highlighted that training dentists locally is essential to improving long-term access to oral healthcare provision. A dental school in Lincoln would benefit patients living across Lincolnshire, the wider East Midlands, and other rural and coastal parts of the region.
The Government’s recent announcement of investment in local dental training across other underserved parts of the country was welcomed as a positive step. Training dentists in the communities that need them most is one of the most effective ways to build and retain a workforce where it can have the greatest impact.
What is needed now is a sustained commitment from Government to ensure that the East Midlands is not left behind. Establishing a new dental school in Lincoln would help address longstanding workforce shortages, improve access to dental care, and ensure the region benefits from the same targeted investment being made elsewhere.
The campaign visited Skegness, Sutton on Sea, Cleethorpes, Louth and the Lincolnshire Show before concluding in Westminster, where campaign supporters, MPs and stakeholders called for action to improve dental access in underserved rural and coastal communities.
Professor Jamie Read, Dean of Lincoln Medical School at the University of Lincoln, said:
The Dental Desserts Tour is a light-hearted way of opening up a very serious conversation. Lincolnshire was the first area in the country deemed to be a ‘dental desert’. This has been the case for too long and too many people across our rural and coastal communities are struggling to access NHS dental care.
A dental school in Lincolnshire would not only improve access to care now, it would help create a long-term pipeline of dental professionals for the future. We have shown with Lincoln Medical School how the University can deliver solutions for people across our region and we are determined to do the same again with a dental school.
Political backing for a new dental school in Lincoln continues to grow, with cross-party support from MPs and political leaders across Lincolnshire.
Hamish Falconer, MP for Lincoln, said:
Lincoln is uniquely positioned to serve not just our county, but the wider East Midlands and East of England – with strong clinical networks and deep reach into rural and coastal communities.
We have the infrastructure. We have the partnerships. We have the political will across all parties.
Find out more about the University’s Stronger Roots campaign here.
