Meetings are held throughout the year and please let us know of any issues that you feel need to be addressed on behalf of dentists in the area.

If you are a NHS Dentist working in Northamptonshire, please subscribe to ensure you receive our newsletters and invitations to events provided by your LDC.

A Local Dental Committee (LDC) is a locally constituted and NHS recognised group of democratically elected NHS dentists and dental service providers, tasked with the representation of their peers in the negotiation and planning of locally commissioned NHS primary care dental services. Regulations may require NHS England to undertake formal consultation with the respective local dental committee or committees, or to include LDC representatives on relevant boards and panels.

The provision for “Local Dental Committees” (LDCs) exists within the NHS Act 2006 (amended by the NHS Act 2012). Local Dental Committees have existed since the inception of the NHS, to support and represent local dentists and to help plan services within the local health economy. LDCs comprise elected dentists from the area for which they are formed. Depending on the size of the area covered, an LDC may be around 10 or 15 dentists in number and is sometimes larger. The elected dentists make up “the committee”, which represents all dentists providing, or performing on, contracts for General Dental Services (GDS), as well as other NHS and private dentists working in primary care who may choose to be represented by the committee. If you are unsure about whether you are eligible to stand for election to the LDC in your area, please contact us.

LDCs exist to act as a representative body for dentists locally, and to maintain a dialogue with NHS commissioners and other related organisations in the health economy on behalf of practising dentists. LDCs have a pastoral function for their members in the local professional community, providing support, advice and representation for individual practitioners where required.

There are 90 across England. LDCs meet both regionally and nationally, to share information and support one another in their local work. There is an Annual Conference of LDCs for England and Wales, which is usually held in June and is attended by representatives from each LDC around the country. There is also a national meeting of LDC representatives in December each year, where national issues and policy developments are discussed.