The British Dental Association has welcomed efforts to maintain vital financial support for the struggling service but is warning that more certainty is needed.
The Department of Health has confirmed that the fee enhancements for high street NHS dentists will continue into the first quarter of the 2023/24 financial year.
The £14.30 Enhanced Children's Examination Fee implemented in January also carries over for another three months into Q1 but will then cease. This enhancement is aimed at easing the financial barriers and dental access difficulties impacting young children.
Read more: Concerns over future of NI dentistry amid NHS exodus into private sector
A further review will take place to consider the Department's position on the 10% enhancement for the remainder of 2023/24.
In a letter to all general dental practitioners in Northern Ireland, a DoH spokesperson said it understood "that uncertainty over longer term arrangements causes issues for practices, however due to the current financial challenges facing the Department, it is not possible to provide a further commitment at this time."
"Further information regarding a decision on full year support will follow when available," they added.
The BDA has acknowledged the efforts made to maintain vital financial support for the struggling service but say continued support will be required beyond June. It comes as some dentists have been going private because of the costs of delivering NHS dental care.
Ciara Gallagher, Chair of the BDA’s Northern Ireland Dental Practice Committee said: “We recognise the concerted effort that has been put in to ensure this vital support will remain in place.
“This announcement only covers the period to June, dentists will require continued support and certainty for the remainder of the financial year, and beyond, if we are to stem the flow away from Health Service dentistry.
“With patient care continuing to be severely impacted in the wake of Covid-19, we must find a way of measuring and addressing the costs of delivering NHS dental care, to make NHS dentistry financially viable for practitioners.
“Below-inflation uplifts which bear no resemblance to soaring costs of care will no longer cut it. We must use the next three months to put dentistry on a sustainable footing.”
In February, the BDA warned that the future of NHS dentistry in Northern Ireland "hangs in the balance" as years of tighter margins and punishing schedules has forced many into the private sector.
It followed concerns raised by a Stormont MLA that the dentists’ NHS exodus is leaving a mass of patients without care.
Scores of constituents contacted the office of Independent East Derry MLA Claire Sugden after being unable to find any available dentists to treat them. Of the few who still carried out work for the NHS, no dentists were taking on new patients.
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