Methodology
Where our data comes from, how we process it, and its limits.
Source
Practice details and “accepting new patients” statuses come from the NHS website (nhs.uk), via the NHS Service Search API (version 3), which lists every dental organisation in England. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How often we update
We download the full list every morning at around 05:15 UK time. The most recent check finished 8 Nov 2026, 17:55. If the download fails or returns far fewer practices than expected, we keep the previous day's data rather than publish something incomplete.
What each status means
- Adults: the practice says it is accepting new NHS patients aged 18 and over.
- Children: accepting new NHS patients under 18.
- Free-care adults: accepting adults entitled to free NHS dental care (for example, pregnant or on certain benefits).
- Urgent appointments and referral only are shown where the practice reports them.
- If a practice hasn't published any status, we show it as unknown rather than “not accepting”.
What “last confirmed” means
Each practice records the date it last updated its accepting-patients information. Practices are expected to confirm their NHS website details every quarter (by 30 June, 30 September, 31 December and 31 March), so we label statuses as:
| Last confirmed | Label |
|---|---|
| Within 30 days | Recently confirmed |
| 31 to 95 days ago | Confirmed this quarter |
| More than 95 days ago | Possibly out of date (greyed out) |
| Never | No recent update |
Why a status can be wrong
Statuses are self-reported. A practice might fill its places the same day it says it's accepting, or forget to update after it reopens. That's why we always show the confirmation date, rank recently confirmed practices first, and recommend phoning before you travel.
How we order practices
- Accepting adults, confirmed in the last 95 days
- Accepting children or free-care adults, confirmed in the last 95 days
- Accepting, but possibly out of date
- Not accepting
- Status unknown
Within each group, closer practices come first. Distances are straight-line from the town centre or your postcode.
Change history
Each day we compare the new data with what we held before and record every change to a practice's status or confirmation date. This history is our own record and starts from the day we began tracking.
Town pages
Each town page covers every practice within a fixed radius of the town centre (about 5 miles for cities, 4 for towns, 3 for villages and 2.5 for London districts). Places with fewer than three practices in range aren't listed in search engines; they link to the nearest larger place.
Call reports
Visitors can tell us what happened when they phoned a practice. Reports without a note appear immediately. Notes are checked by a person before they appear, and we remove anything that includes personal information, links, phone numbers or abuse. To limit spam we allow five reports per visitor per day, using a hashed, daily-rotating identifier rather than storing IP addresses.
Postcodes and locations
We use postcodes.io to turn postcodes into locations, local authorities and integrated care boards. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right; contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right; source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Corrections
If you run a practice and something is wrong, update it on the NHS website (we pick it up the next morning) or contact us.