Bupa Dental Care is to cut 85 dental practices this year in a move that will affect 1,200 staff across the UK, amid a national shortage of dentists and “systemic” challenges across the industry. The private healthcare group said patients at the affected practices had not been able to access the NHS dental service they needed. The provider, which provides private and NHS dental care, has not been able to recruit enough dentists for NHS care in many practices for months and in some cases years, it said. Bupa said the 85 practices will be closed, sold or merged later this year, bringing the total number of practices in the…