PATIENTS in Glasgow are waiting up to two years for dental surgery treatment according to official figures.

The average waiting time for some dentistry in Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS area is 40 weeks, which has shot up from 17 weeks four years ago.

The longest wait for treatment in the health board area is 105 weeks, for oral in-patient surgery, a huge increase from 36 weeks in 2020.

The figures were obtained by the Scottish Labour Party who said it was a “scandal”.

Across Scotland’s health boards the longest average wait was in Lothian where patients are waiting 52.9 weeks and the longest wait was 121 weeks.

The longest wait was in Highland where a period of  212 weeks was recorded.

Labour said people are waiting seven times longer than they were four years ago.

Paul Sweeney, Glasgow Labour MSP, is the party’s spokesperson on dentistry.

He said: “Being in pain every time you eat a meal or try to talk is agony for a few days, let alone months or years, but that is the reality for many of those unfortunate enough to be on a waiting list for dental surgery.

“The SNP has presided over a rot in local NHS dentistry over the past 17 years and it needs to brush up its act fast.

“A Scottish Labour government will end this creeping two-tier health system and ensure that patients can get the treatment they need.”

In Lanarkshire patients were waiting 35 weeks on average last year while in 2019/20 it was only five weeks.

In Lothian and Dumfries and Galloway, people waited more than four times as long compared to four years prior, and one patient in Grampian was forced to wait four years for surgery. 

The Glasgow Times attempted to contact the Scottish Government for comment.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde did not wish to comment on the figures.