NHS dentistry access delays: 'I did my own filling'

Patients are having to wait anywhere between a few months to three years to get an NHS dental appointment, Healthwatch has warned. What does this mean for patients and their dentists?

"Access to NHS dentistry continues to be the biggest issue for most people who spoke to us," says the patient body Healthwatch in its new survey. "In fact, access has consistently become more difficult over the last five months."

Difficulties getting NHS appointments have led to some patients feeling "pressured to pay for private care", the organisation warned.

In some cases, patients are opting to perform dental procedures on themselves.

Steve Freeman, of Lowestoft, is one of those who ended up performing DIY dentistry on himself.

He tells how he cracked a tooth which left the nerve exposed and a sharp jagged edge cutting into his cheek.

His regular practice with whom he was registered said it had removed him from its lists as he had not seen them for 18 months.

"I did call 12 to 15 other practices to see whether they were taking on new NHS patients," he says, "and absolutely none of them said they were.

"Neither could they recommend anywhere I could contact to try to register.

"I've had to buy a home filling kit in an attempt to do it myself.

"My fear is that there will be a whole generation of people who can't access NHS treatment care.

"It really is a wholly unacceptable situation."

Sharrow Dental Care in Chelmsford has seen more than 11,000 emergency case patients since March 2020.

According to the practice's clinical director Tony Clough, people have called them from as far afield as Newcastle and Edinburgh.

"Some of them are in acute pain," he says. "They have maybe phoned around several practices who are busy and they want to be seen.

"We have our capacity problems. If we've already got 10 or 15 patients booked in it's very difficult to find space for another patient.

"You get paid the same rate for doing a root canal which can take two hours and the same rate for doing a filling which can take you 10 minutes.

"It's a crazy system."

Andy Yacoub, Chief Executive of Healthwatch Suffolk, describes the current state of NHS dentistry locally as being in "crisis".

He says NHS commissioning bodies place too much emphasis on "targets and numbers" and claims not enough work is being done to prevent dental problems in the first place.

"It is a system that is broken and the pandemic has exacerbated this situation.

"Practices are really struggling. In Suffolk alone we've had closures over the last few months in the east and west of the county and more on their way.

Patients are having to go outside the county to find NHS care," he says.

"Commissioners from NHS England and Improvement are saying there's a new strategy on its way but my word it is going to have to be earth shatteringly different.

"It's the future that's at stake here".

NHS England (NHSE) say urgent dental care "continues to be available for anyone who needs it".

NHSE says, in April 2020, 32 urgent dental care hubs were established in the East of England to provide care for people with urgent and emergency dental problems.

It says they are working with dentists across the East of England to ensure routine dental services can be restored safely in the wake of the pandemic.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman says: "We are committed to supporting the dental sector throughout this unprecedented pandemic so everyone across the country can access affordable, high-quality dental care.

"All dental practices have been able to deliver their full range of face-to-face care since last June, with over 600 practices providing additional support for urgent dental treatment.

"We continue to support the most vulnerable by providing exemptions from dental charges for certain groups - nearly half of all dental treatments, over 17 million, were provided free of charge in 2019-20."

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