HUNDREDS of patients attended Herefordshire accident and emergency departments for tooth injuries in the past three years.

A freedom of information request submitted to the Wye Valley NHS Trust has revealed that 718 patients have visited the emergency department for tooth injuries since 2021.

In 2021 to 2022, the number of patients who visited the department with dental injuries stood at 242, with 23 of these being aged 5 to 17.

In the 2022 to 23 period, the department saw a rise in these cases, with 253 patients attending, and 25 of these being children.

A slight decline in numbers was seen in 2023 to 2024, with 223 cases. Of these, only 16 were aged between 5 and 17.

Currently, the NHS Find A Dentist near you search displays no Hereford clinics that are advertising spaces for NHS dental patients.

The lack of NHS dental appointments in the area comes after recent data revealed that more than three in five children have not seen an NHS dentist in the past year across two English areas, researchers found.

In Herefordshire,  20,980 children were identified as not having seen a dentist in the past year, out of an estimated group of 34,052 (61.6 per cent).

The NHS GP Patient Survey found 31 per cent of 4,300 respondents in the area covered by NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board were unsuccessful when they tried to book an appointment with an NHS dentist in the last two years.

Of those, 11 per cent said no appointments were available, while 10 per cent were told the dentist was not taking any new patients.