Decay among children is 3.8 times more likely in areas of deprivation, knowing that ICBs took on dentistry last year, delegates were told.

Nicci Briggs, chief financial officer at NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB, said: ‘One of the first things I did was say let's get some insights because to understand and get an answer for a crisis you need to understand what the challenge is.'

The ‘shocking' insights showed that 71% of practices in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough don't accept new NHS patients and it is projected that by the end of 2028 only 20% of the region's population will be able to access a dentist.

In addition, Briggs highlighted that the NHS payment system that only reimburses dentists for 70% of the cost of their work.

The trust's insights also found that an appointment to see an NHS dentist is 12% of the population's disposable household income, and treatment is 70% of most deprived areas disposable income.

Briggs told the conference: ‘We looked at the levers we have to fix it and how to use the money we have differently. We took the insights and effectively worked out a way of pulling different levers and sat with 18 of our dental practices and asked if I pulled this lever what would happen?'

The ICB tested through 24 different scenarios and its plan is to pull the lever on using the money that would be given back to the government and used it reimburse dentists and used it to create a workforce skills mix more appropriate to dentistry.

‘Then you can increase capacity and build on prevention at the same time,' said Briggs. ‘That's effectively what we're trying to do in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.'

She added: ‘There are levers that you are able to pull if you move away from the traditional either national contracting priorities or the national route to funding and start to work with your practitioners, your communities, your patients.'

Earlier in the year, NHS England published a joint NHS and DHSC plan to recover and reform dentistry with a number of initiatives being introduced, one of those was National Dentist Incentivisation scheme to attract new dentists and improve access to care in areas with the highest demand. In Cambridgeshire and Peterborough the funding equates to 12 placements for dentists.