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    People are pulling their own teeth out due to lack of urgent NHS dental care
    United Kingdom

    People are pulling their own teeth out due to lack of urgent NHS dental care

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    43 Comments

    1. Obscure-Oracle on

      Totally unacceptable in one of the most wealthiest nations on earth. Teeth are so important to overall health and wellbeing, so for it not to be treated seriously and basic dental care not provided free in a timely manor to the poorer in society is ridiculous.

    2. ChaiTeaAndBoundaries on

      The government has given up on NHS dental care and it is looking like the government wants to give up on NHS medical care.

    3. seany1212 on

      NHS dental care is a glimpse into the private healthcare model. Unless you’re under 18, covered by a benefit that includes NHS dentistry or have private healthcare, you’re shit out of luck and either need to save to deal with whatever dental issue you have or you go without because you’re trying to cover X, Y or Z bill this month.

      Bare in mind this will be the median amount of the population, because if anyone has remotely looked at what the private or subsidised NHS costs are, a lot of people in that bracket would struggle to afford £75 to remove a tooth…

      [https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/how-much-nhs-dental-treatment-costs/](https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/how-much-nhs-dental-treatment-costs/)

    4. Cyanopicacooki on

      This was highlighted 2 years ago, then 3 years before that during the pandemic, and again about a decade ago.

      We don’t have enough dentists, and a lot of folk can’t afford the ones that we do have

    5. Dissidant on

      Same story every year for how many years

      Of course its unacceptable, its also self defeating because untreated dental can have gnarly health outcomes the result of which is those imaginary savings on resources are used (and then some) when someone ends up presenting at hospital with something serious, which could had prob had been prevented before getting anywhere near that bad

    6. MadMuffinMan117 on

      Not surprised when having 2 wisdom teeth removed which is a routine extraction cost me £500.
      That kind of speedbump is unacceptable to most young people.
      Around 39% of people have £1000 or less in savings and 1/4 brits have less then £200

    7. EgoCity on

      NHS dentists have gone down the crapper for years now, there is always a waiting list and no push by the government for it to be emptied. My dentist cancelled my appointment during Covid and never contacted me back, when I eventually contacted them they claimed I had cancelled it and they had struck me off. Clearly someone there had messed up and they were covering for each other but I haven’t had a dentist since 2021 now. Thankfully I personally haven’t needed one, but they struck my son off too… scumbags

    8. AlloysRS on

      I have been suffering with excruciating pain since Friday for what I think is a gum infection or abscess, it’s affecting several teeth in one area.

      For all the same reasons in the article, I am unable to access any care, no one can help me. So instead I’m using alternatively sourced antibiotics (Doxycycline) and extra strong painkillers (Opiates) just to try and get through this.

      I have already spent £1000s on private healthcare because GICs, LDS and MHS all have several year long waits to access any care. I haven’t even been able to book an appointment with my GP for months. I can’t afford to pay any more currently so here I am stuck trying to get by and hoping I don’t have an infection that will kill me off.

      It’s ridiculous that this is where healthcare has got to.

    10. BourbonSn4ke on

      NHS dentists do not exist.

      Covid is the reason as to why we have so few, my practise used to have 2 i think and then covid hit, I didn’t go for 3 years because they kept cancelling then voila no NHS dentist you have to go private. Problem was I didn’t go for 3 years so they did a full check and discovered problems and I had to pay an extortionate amount, even check ups are like 60quid now.

      Opticians are the odd one though, I don’t mind paying for them but I feel the service and overall quality is much better. Maybe because it is also lumped in with fashion.

    11. Electrical_Wall8926 on

      I have heard about local dentists going private and knocking everyone off their NHS list lately too. Trying to promote monthly payment plans instead.

      Absolutely disgraceful that it’s gone this far.

    12. jenny_905 on

      The NHS never got a handle of dentistry and the situation in the 2000s has somehow become even worse.

      There should be a total ban on more dentists going private and a real, proper look at how NHS services are funded. It was always an afterthought and this is the very stupid result.

    13. Fuzzy-Loss-4204 on

      I have so few teeth left i will be on a soup diet in the not to distant future, we had better dental care in the 1970’s I don’t own a house i can re mortgage to visit a private dentist

    14. Uhtred_of_nothing on

      NHS dentists even if you get one are often and only provide the most basic of basic care whilst not offering the full services as per NHS banding. Anything more complex and they boot you into the referral black hole or try to convince you to have that could be saved extracted.

      Am currently in this situation after 5 years of being messed about. Referred to a proper NHS dentist by the ICB and led me on for a months with promises to resolve my issues. Made a complaint due to the dentist not delivering what they are promised and in a conversation the director told me they only offer the most basic dental care….and that their website that had been taken down and put up again with a lengthy list of treatments including veneers was incorrect – they dont offer treatments but promote like they do.

    15. Crab_Jealous on

      Yep..that’d be my rotting teeth. 15 years ago my teeth were bodged and ever since one by one all the crowns cracked to expose poor seals and rotted crumbling teeth.

      Unable to get any dentists in my area…suppose I’ll let them rot along with my self esteem.

    16. MrSpindles on

      My mother pulled several of her own teeth, but that was because she was mentally ill.

      I can’t speak for anywhere else, but in my part of the midlands the NHS dentistry provision has much improved in the last couple of years. It still means being on a waiting list when you sign up to a practice but the wait is now 3-6 months, not 3-5 years (which was the case consistently throughout the 2010s/early 2020s).

      The problem is that you get NHS dentistry deserts, where there are too few practices accepting new NHS patients. Today it’s good in my town, and like in the 90s I could choose between multiple practices to sign up with, but for a long time there were just a handful that accepted NHS patients and both had LONG waiting lists. I’m in a town of about 80k people.

      In places like parts of Wales, where you might have the same number of people living more spread out geographically with maybe one larger conurbation the problem can be extreme.

    18. dannieupton on

      We’ve been forced to go private by our dentist, my partner was having reoccurring tooth infections, wasn’t until we went private that we were informed that it could be a medication she’s taking that’s causing it, It felt like they scrimped on the level of care when we were NHS patients. I’m not surprised people are doing home jobs, it cost £135 for an extraction privately.

    19. TimedDelivery on

      I live in Kent and see a private dentist now after waiting for an NHS dentist for several years. I’ve got around £3000 worth of dental work required (mostly fillings) that I’m getting done in little £150-250 chunks here and there, probably going to be around 2 years of this before it’s completed, assuming nothing deteriorates further during that time. And I’m lucky to be able to afford that! 

      Most of the patients whose conversations I’ve overheard in the waiting room are in a similar situation, they’re scheduling appointments based on when they think they can afford it, discussing what needs to be done urgently vs what can maybe wait 6-12 months and putting off preventative treatments because they need to prioritise the urgent ones. I’ve heard conversations weighing up the risks of letting an infected tooth escalate to needing to go to A&E to deal with it vs pay now to have it extracted but then fall behind on a household expense. This. Is. Insane.

    20. affordable_firepower on

      I might be the unicorn here.

      I registered with an NHS dentist on Thursday last week. Mostly because my crown/filling on my front tooth has fallen out.

      I have an appointment on Thursday this week.

      Here’s hoping that I dont just get referred or told to go private

    21. CaptMelonfish on

      Urgent? try standard! the lack of NHS funding to dental services has utterly annihilated proper dentistry in the UK.

    22. Ambitious-Calendar-9 on

      I’ve needed my impacted wisdom tooth out for 5 years. I cannot afford to get it done privately.
      Also been on an NHS wait-list for 2 years.
      If you don’t have money, you’re shit outta luck.

    23. Georgist-Minarchist on

      took 1 year for my wisdoms to be looked at despite the high amount of pain it caused

    24. TheMightosaurus on

      I had to basically beg to have my tooth extracted. The wait for an NHS Dentist in Cardiff is 3 years. Absolutely abysmal. I’ve had to pay privately the past two years, it’s cost me thousands.

    25. Cultural_Joke2025 on

      NHS dentists no longer exist like they used to. It all went tits up around 2000.

      I was quoted 5k for a load of work, so I’m looking to go abroad to have it done cheaper.

    26. GiftedGeordie on

      As someone who’s had to go to a private dentist because my previous dentist has stopped seeing NHS patients, I can’t believe that more people aren’t kicking off about this, if the entire NHS charged as much as private dental practices do, there’d be riots in the street.

      So why don’t people care when it comes to free dental health?

    27. TheRadishBros on

      Are there any recommended countries that I could fly to and get work done privately at a reasonable cost if it ever came to it?

    28. BoltersnRivets on

      my teeth have been fucked up for years. crooked and overlapping teeth that are turned inwards and constantly poke and lacerate my tongue, simply the act of subconciously running the tongue against the back of the incisors causes it to bleed, never given braces as a child.

      it’s hard to care about my teeth now when no amount of brushing will fix the fact the grouping of my teeth is actively causing bleeding gums as one my my incisors is at a sharp right angle and overlapping a premolar with just enough space for the gum get squished about.

      I’ll never have the funds to afford dental, I expect them to deteriorate and need removing until I’m left with bare gums

    29. TalosAnthena on

      My dentist changed to private. Now I can’t get an NHS dentist. I’m paying for private now and it’s £53 a month!

    30. met22land on

      Broke a tooth a couple of years ago: emergency dentist was anything from 500-1000. So I’ll wait till it goes rotten, and then get the hospital to do it.

    31. Silver-Appointment77 on

      Its true. Ive gum disease and one of my back teeth was wobbly and irritating. Ive got a dentist but with a 5 month waiting list for appointments. So I just sat here and pulled it out, Thankfully it didnt hurt much or bleed.

      But the NHS dentists are hard to find. Mine is private, but was passed over by my previous dentists who sold hos business. Nhs patients have a lot longer wait than private. They can get next day apointments.

    32. Real_Garden_1634 on

      I had to extract one of mine with a titanium marlin spike as I couldn’t get a dentist due to COVID. Not great, not terrible.

    33. oh_no3000 on

      I finally gave up getting a NHS dentist ( been looking since 2018 ) and am now paying thousands for dental work privately.

      I always said the last election could have been won by a single issue party. Free dentistry.

      What annoys me further is that the NHS is free at point if use… except dentists. Somehow that doesn’t apply even if you’re an NHS patient you get charged a small fee.

    34. Ringodin on

      My area has a gaping void of dentists offering NHS services.

      I had a particularly bad experience with a previous ‘old school’ dentist. He then retired. A newly-ish qualified dentist took his place. Then he left for another surgery; private dentistry. But he’s so good at his job I decided to follow him. I pay through the nose for his services, last payment was £1050 for root canal and porcelain crown. It’s such a joke what the industry has become in this country, it’s no wonder people who can’t afford it turn to DIY dentistry.

    35. MsAndrea on

      Just FYI, if you’re in this situation, if you call 111 they’ll refer you to an emergency appointment with a dentist. They won’t do anything complicated, but you definitely shouldn’t need to go private for a removal. The lines are always busy but they’re 24 hours, so if it’s keeping you up in the middle of the night call then when the lines are quiet.

    36. HALFLEGO on

      My Grandma had all her teeth taken out in the 1930’s and got false teeth, not because of dental health. It was just cheaper in the long run.

      We’re at this stage again.

    37. StampyScouse on

      As a person with sensory issues I have always experienced oral hygiene problems and because of this my teeth are not in good shape. Not only did my current practice never want to help me with this even when this was raised multiple times with them, (and there’s even a specialist dentist in the next borough and same trust that specilaises in dentistry for children with special needs which they could have refereed me too), they now won’t even offer me an appointment on a suitable day or time because only one of their dentists is still seeing their NHS patients.

      The best part is that I’m now at Uni and that practice is now 2 hours away from me by public transport, as I can’t drive. There are some practices which say they’re taking on NHS patients nearby online, but when you phone them, they actually aren’t. I can’t afford the cost of going private on a student’s income at a local dentist and getting back to my practice is an expensive nightmare because of the state of this country’s rail and bus infastructure so I just am not going to the dentist yet again until things get so bad I have to call 111.

    39. rickiegarcon on

      Aww well.. we will just send another 10 million to Ukraine to help their energy sector and pump more billions into a failed project called HS2. After all, the subjects are weak and won’t notice. They’ll
      Just keep
      Pulling teeth

    40. Still-Status7299 on

      I had a conversation with a dentist in our golfing circle about why it costs so much, then he broke down how much it costs him to run a dental practice and provide the services.

      It seems private dentistry is just expensive all round, whereas in an NHS surgery the state funds treatment to shield the cost from the customer.

      If dentists are forced to run a private business, then costs will never come down. The NHS needs to either make dentistry a super basic service, or fully fund it (which i think is not financially viable).

      Moral of the story is, make sure you’re never in dire need of a dentist 🤣

    41. exileon21 on

      Soon the govt will be able to do it themselves when they roll back the anti-torture protections of the ECHR

    42. Dinin53 on

      My brother has done this for years. Pair of pliers, nail file, screwdriver, whatever he can get his hands on.

      Not because he can’t get an appointment, mind you. But because he doesn’t like dentists and he’s fucking mental.

    43. Astriania on

      NHS dentistry is a complete joke, unless you’re one of the lucky few it’s almost impossible to get a dentist for regular appointments, never mind urgent care (which of course is more likely since you can’t get a regular checkup).

      It’s been true for probably 20 years at this point, but Covid was the excuse for it to get a lot worse, as with so many other things.

      And even if you *do* get an NHS dentist you still have to pay for dental care, unlike other medical care.

      It really needs (to borrow a political term) root and branch reform, and no politician is talking about it (because they know it would be expensive as fuck, like social care).