The National Health Service (NHS), that jewel in the crown of the British welfare state, recently turned 75. It's been a tumultuous time for dentistry, moving from a free at-the-point-of-access service to a fee-paying one in the early 1950s and through numerous changes until we reach the 2006 contract, under which many of us now practise.

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Alongside the anniversary celebrations, the government announced the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, the latest in a long line of ideas to keep the NHS working for future generations. Key to this, for us in the profession at least, is the promise to increase training places for dentists and dental therapists, with a 40% increase in dental graduates and increasing dental hygiene and therapy places to 500 by 2031/32. These proposals would significantly increase the dental workforce in the long term and, given the increased focus on dental therapists working alongside dentists, would help to tackle the continuing issue of dental recruitment.

Of course, these promises come with several caveats, with much being made of Rishi Sunak's announcement that the government is considering a multi-year 'tie-in' for newly qualified dentists, which would involve a minimum requirement for time spent seeing NHS patients. Although the details are unclear, it's difficult to see how this would work. Apart from the fact that it wouldn't stop the current exodus of dentists from the NHS, it's unlikely that young people will be tempted into a profession where they know they will have to work in a broken system for years to come.

Dentistry is the healthcare profession of choice for capitalists. If you want to build a business surrounding people's wellbeing, there are ample opportunities in the dental sector. These tie-in proposals have the potential to limit this and may drive away the budding dental entrepreneurs of the future. Those with more altruistic reasons for entering dentistry would do so even if there was a tie-in.

But we must also consider the current political environment. We're due a general election within the next 18 months, and if current polling trends continue, we'll see a Labour-led NHS for the first time since 2010. There's no indication of what a Starmer-controlled government would have planned for dentistry, although we're unlikely to see the 'NHS check-up for all' pledge again. However, some Labour MPs are calling for immediate reforms to the current contract.1 And while many have noted that chronic underspending on the NHS for over a decade has led to the current crisis, we must remember that New Labour engineered and imposed the current NHS dental contract.

Even if Sunak does manage to win the next election, should we be taking talk of enforced NHS work seriously? No fewer than seven similar NHS plans have been proposed since 2013, overseen by six different Secretaries of State. Is it any wonder that reforming NHS dentistry is taking so long with such short-term political involvement? What we need is a plan, a good plan, that everyone can stick to.