Plymouth MPs launch campaign for more dental training places

A proposed increase would allow the University to take on 25% more dental students each year
The Chief Dental Officer for England, Sara Hurley, unveiled our expanded Simulated Dental Learning Environment
Plymouth’s three Members of Parliament have joined forces to argue for a 25% increase in the number of dental students being trained at the University of Plymouth.
The Peninsula Dental School , ranked by the Guardian University Guide as the UK’s best place to study dentistry for the past two years, currently accepts 58 new dental students each year.
However the campaign by MPs Luke Pollard, Rebecca Smith and Fred Thomas, and backed by Plymouth City Council’s cross-party Dental Taskforce, is calling for that figure to rise to 72 places.
The MPs have signed a joint letter to the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting MP, calling for the department to allocate additional places for the Peninsula Dental School when the Department for Health and Social Care and the Office for Students look at student numbers later this year.

Increasing dental student places from 58 to 72 will allow school leavers highly sought after places at dental school. This education funding will create a virtuous circle in not only training the future dental workforce, but allowing further access to treatment for patients across the South West.

The recently released 10-year Health Plan for England puts community, prevention, and the use of digital innovation at the centre of the future NHS – they are at the heart of all we do. Our community-based clinics serving rural and coastal communities across the South West focus on educating our students on prevention, while utilising digital workflows to optimise patient care. And our innovative model of primary care-based education has seen the Dental School top the Guardian University Guide table for dentistry in 2024 and 2025.

Ewen McCollProfessor Ewen McColl
Head of Peninsula Dental School

The University is the leading provider of healthcare education in the South West and its dental students are trained in facilities across Plymouth and the wider South West.
Those facilities included a Simulated Dental Learning Environment (SDLE) with almost 100 state-of-the-art dental simulators, also known as phantom heads, where undergraduate students learn the principles of dental practice.
Four clinics across Devon and Cornwall, operated through the Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise, also enable more than 430 students on the Dental Surgery and Dental Therapy and Hygiene programmes to work alongside experienced staff to hone their skills, and in the past year, they provided well over 35,000 appointments to almost 6,500 patients.
They will soon be joined by a fifth clinic – a new dental education practice being developed in Plymouth city centre – that will give final-year students the opportunity to treat patients who do not currently have an NHS dentist.

Plymouth’s dental school is the best in England. The crisis in dentistry has been decades in the making but there simply isn’t a fix that doesn’t involve training more dentists. We are brilliant at this and that’s why I want to see a huge increase in student places at our dental school to train the next generation of South West dentists.

Luke Pollard MP
MP for Plymouth Sutton & Devonport

Peninsula Dental School is an incredible institution which trains the dentists of the future. They are a key part of tackling the crisis in dentistry that we have in the city. But they know they can go further, and they want to, by training even more dentists every year. This is where the government needs to step in and allocate them additional dental student training places – so that PDSE can continue to grow and we can continue to tackle the dentistry crisis in Plymouth – and I hope they will respond positively to our request.

Fred Thomas MP
MP for Plymouth Moor View

Every week I speak to people in South West Devon who are in pain, struggling to find an NHS dentist, and feeling like they’ve been left behind. The Peninsula Dental School is already changing lives, but they have the potential to do so much more. This is about ensuring that people in Plymouth and the wider region can get the care they deserve, and I’m proud to back this call for investment in our city’s future.

Rebecca Smith MP
MP for South West Devon
 
Peninsula Dental School - girl practising dental techniques on a phantom head in the SDLE

Dental Education Facilities

A mockup showing what the new Peninsula Dental Education Practice will look like once complete

City centre clinic helps to address urgent demand for dental services in Plymouth

Dental treatment at the PDSE

Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise

 

Outstanding clinical education; strong social engagement; and world-class research feature strongly in your learning experience when you come to study dentistry with us:

Peninsula Dental School - girl practising dental techniques on a phantom head in the SDLE