New research has revealed that a lack of training is the main reason why so few dentists offer dental implants .
According to dental implant company Implantium, just over one in three dentists in the UK do not offer their patients dental implants, with 64.5 per cent of those claiming they lack the necessary skills or training to do so.
The company’s research, released yesterday, found that 25.8 per cent of dentists that do not carry out this service blamed the high costs of equipment and dental implants themselves, while a further 6.5 per cent said their practice was too small to be able to offer the service .
Despite these findings, the Implantium research shows that the UK dental implant market is growing, with some 22.7 per cent of those that offer implants reporting an increase in demand over the past 12 months.
In addition, 25 per cent of dentists who aren't currently offering this service are planning to do so by the same time next year.
Jason Buglass, dental implant expert and managing director of Implantium, said: "Our research shows that collectively there are 46.5 million adult teeth missing in Britain, so there is certainly a huge potential market."
"We are trying to encourage more dentists to offer implant services by offering implants that are 81 per cent lower in price than the market average as well as training courses for dentists," he added.
