ScotWaits

NHS dentists in NHS Shetland

NHS Shetland has 2 NHS dental practices, covering Lerwick. Between December 2025 and March 2026, 1 of them ended up with more patients than they started with.

Nobody publishes a national list of who’s taking new NHS patients. NHS Inform’s dental directory lists every practice but doesn’t say whether any of them have space. Some boards publish their own list, so it’s worth checking NHS Shetland’s website too — we haven’t found one for this board, and if you know of it, tell us and we’ll link it.

Some practices only take children on, which the figures here can’t distinguish from taking anyone on.

What’s below is whether a practice’s list actually grew between December 2025 and March 2026, the two most recent counts published. One that was signing people up then is a better bet than one whose list shrank. It’s not a promise though. You still have to phone, and some of that growth will be existing patients re-registering rather than new ones.

One more thing worth knowing: these are net figures. A practice that registered 300 people and lost 200 shows up the same as one that quietly took on 100. It also can’t tell you how many a practice is able to take at once, or whether they do it steadily or in bursts when a new dentist starts. This is a shorter list to phone, not a way of avoiding the phoning.

Where a practice grew but its postcode area didn’t, that’s flagged underneath. It usually means another practice nearby closed or lost a dentist and the patients were moved across, so the list grew without anyone new getting on.

Practices that took people on

Biggest increase first, which is a poor way of finding who’s open. Some of the practices most reliably taking people on go up by single figures. A big jump often means a practice absorbed patients from one that closed, and can mean they’re now stretched — though one reader told us their practice took on 500 and hired more staff to cope. Read the full list, not the top of it.

  • 4 Market Street

    Lerwick, Shetland · ZE1 0JN

    6,300 patients

    took on 38

Every NHS practice in NHS Shetland

Grouped by town, largest practice first. A few of these aren’t places you can register at all — the list PHS publish includes prison dental services, orthodontists and oral surgeons who only take referrals, and clinics that are mostly private. Anywhere with only a handful of NHS patients is marked.

  • Brae Dental Clinic

    Brae Health Centre, Brae · ZE2 9QJ

    15,167 patients

    list fell by 21

  • 4 Market Street

    Lerwick, Shetland · ZE1 0JN

    6,300 patients

    took on 38

Addresses and patient numbers come from Public Health Scotland’s Dental Practices and Patient Registrations dataset, March 2026 against December 2025. Practices close and change hands between publications, so some of this will be out of date.

NHS dentists at other health boards

Waiting for hospital dental treatment rather than looking for a dentist? Oral surgery waiting times at NHS Shetland.