No wonder you can't get an NHS dentist appointment! Outrage as taxpayer-funded ... trends now
NHS dentists are facing backlash for selling Botox and lip fillers for up to £400.
MailOnline found practices across the country flogging aesthetic treatments — including one that offered a 'facial slimming treatment'.
It comes amid an ever-worsening NHS dental appointments crisis.
Desperate patients have endured mammoth 4am queues in a quest to be seen.
Some have flown to war-torn Ukraine for cheaper private dentistry, while others have resorted to household tools to carry out 'DIY' treatments.
John O'Connell, chief executive of thinktank the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'When patients are scrambling to get any available place for basic dentistry, they'll wonder how there are so many available slots for cosmetic treatment.
'Provided the basics are provided for taxpayers, surgeries ought to be able to seek additional revenue sources.
'But the first priority is to ensure that good-quality dentistry is available to adults and children in every corner of the UK.'
But dentists and patient advocacy groups say dentists themselves aren't to blame.
Instead, they argue that offering such aesthetic treatments is one of the only ways underfunded NHS dental services can 'keep the lights on'.
Twyford Dental Care, in Berkshire, has 'some funding' for NHS patients after 'basic' services.
But patients there can get lip filler for £400, and even a 'facial slimming treatment' using a muscle inhibitor for £1,000.
All Smiles Dental Care in Essex is another NHS provider that offers some aesthetic treatments like dermal fillers for £250 a pop.
Meanwhile, West Kensington NHS Dental Care offers both Botox and dermal fillers for up to £350 a piece, alongside its health service treatments.
Some clinics which boasted of taking on new NHS patients, like Wandsworth Dental Centre, sell Botox for as little as £150.
MailOnline also found other centres which take on NHS patients such as Dental Beauty Islington and Morden Dental Practice offering aesthetic treatments, though they didn't list their prices.
Campaign group Toothless in England, which is advocating for 'an NHS dentist for everyone', said the situation was an 'unfortunate, but inevitable'.
A lack of funding for NHS dentistry has forced some to branch out into the lucrative aesthetics sector, according to Mark Jones, its campaign coordinator.
He told MailOnline: 'Patients in desperate need for dental treatment will rightly feel aggrieved by seeing local services being withdrawn in favour of cosmetic procedures.
'Despite all the empirical evidence proving that provision of good oral healthcare is cost effective for the NHS, successive governments have failed patients, failed the dentists and failed the NHS by not ensuring adequate financial reward is embedded within the current dental (GDS) contract.
'Dental practices can hardly be blamed for exploring markets where offering new services make financial sense.
'One of Toothless in England’s campaign objectives is to see radical reforms made to the GDS contract so that NHS dental practices will become more commonplace in our communities once again.'
Lib Dem health and social care spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said the examples uncovered by this website showed the NHS dental care system was 'completely
