'Humiliation' of foreign dentists who cannot work in UK
BBCA foreign dentist who now lives in the UK has said it is "really humiliating" that people such as himself are unable to practise and instead have to work non-skilled jobs as they wait to sit an exam that proves their professional ability.
Hamza Ryad, who lives in Birmingham, spent two years as a dentist in Pakistan, treating hundreds of people.
Despite a national shortage of NHS dentists, he cannot work in the UK until he passes one of two exams, with each having competition for places. To know that patients were struggling with access while in pain was difficult, he said, but "my hands are tied".
The government said it was rapidly working to expand ways for foreign-registered dentists to work and help to clear NHS backlogs.
Ryad said there must be a more efficient approach, adding: "Having [an] unaddressed workforce present in the country – under-utilised and unaddressed – is totally a failure of the system."
The 28-year-old has tried to book the exams three times since arriving in the UK in 2023, but he has not been successful in that enrolment.
"People [like me] are literally working in takeaways, as care workers, as delivery drivers, which doesn't reflect what the situation of dentistry really is in the country," he said.
How many dentists are waiting?
To show they meet UK standards, dentists from overseas need to pass either the Overseas Registration Exam (ORE), run by the General Dental Council, or the Licence in Dental Surgery Exam (LDS), run by the Royal College of Surgeons.
According to the British Dental Association, about 7,000 internationally-qualified dentists were on waiting lists to prove they had the skill to work in the UK at the outset of 2026.
Ryad initially worked at Tesco but has since found work as a dentist assistant in a private practice, with duties like cleaning the chair and preparing fillings.
Cost is another barrier to the exam process.
The General Dental Council has partnered with UCL Consultants Ltd – part of University College London - to provide more places.
But the price has increased from £4,915 in total to £7,567.
Meanwhile, the total cost of the LDS exam is increasing from £4,230 to £4,784 from September.
The General Dental Council said demand for ORE places had increased by 400% since 2022. But it said capacity was increasing significantly.
On the increased cost, a spokeswoman said: "VAT now applies to the ORE fee and is reflected across the revised 2026 fee structure.
"The VAT position has changed because the ORE is now delivered under a new contractual model with a different entity."
Latest figures from NHS England show about one in five (19%) of general dentist roles in the NHS were vacant as of December 2024. That equates to 2,516 full-time positions.
Meanwhile, in the West Midlands, the vacancy rate was 22% – the equivalent of 555 full-time positions.
According to the British Dental Association, almost 14 million people – or more than one in four of England's adult population – remain unable to access NHS dental care.
In March, the government announced a £420,000 grant to expand the number of LDS exam places.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "No one in the 21st century should be left in a situation where they cannot access a dentist, and we are committed to delivering a domestic pipeline of dentists.
"To help address the dentistry crisis this government inherited, we are supporting a major expansion of registration routes for overseas-qualified dentists – many of whom already live in this country – which will enable thousands more to join the workforce and open up appointments for NHS patients."
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