Special care dentistry: The quiet crisis at the margins of modern healthcare.

Special care dentistry (SCD) provides oral healthcare for adults who are unable to accept routine dental care due to physical, intellectual, medical, emotional, sensory, mental, or social impairments. In England, demand for SCD services is increasing in the context of population ageing, rising multimorbidity, improved tooth retention into later life, and persistent inequalities in access to National Health Service dental care. Recent national survey data highlight substantial levels of untreated dental disease, increasing oral-health-related impacts on quality of life, and significant barriers to accessing care, with these burdens disproportionately affecting individuals with disabilities. Against this backdrop, this paper examines the growing challenges facing SCD in England and argues that these pressures provide a critical lens through which to evaluate equity, integration and resilience within the wider healthcare system. It highlights opportunities to improve service delivery and enable more equitable access to oral healthcare for medically and socially vulnerable populations.