NHS: Woman's dentist appointment means 200-mile round trip

A woman has said she has had to make a 200-mile round trip just to get an NHS dentist appointment.

Georgia Wellings, 22, has been unable to get an appointment in south Wales for five years.

Other patients say they have been forced to drive more than five hours each way to see a dentist, one even being denied an appointment despite having two broken teeth.

The Welsh government said it has increased funding for dentistry.

Last year a BBC investigation found that in 11 out of 22 local authorities in Wales, 100% of dentistry practices contacted were unable to accept new patients.

Ms Wellings said on moving to Cardiff five years ago she immediately tried to find an NHS dentist "but nobody was taking anybody on".

"Five years later and there's still no NHS dentists available," she said.

"I've tried Barry, Swansea, Penarth and Bristol too - absolutely nothing."

Before she moved to Cardiff for university Ms Wellings was registered with an NHS dentist in Exeter, and being unable to find a new one in Wales meant she kept her name on its list.

She said she made the 200-mile round trip to Exeter twice since the start of the Covid pandemic.

But since her last appointment in January, she has been told they no longer offer NHS appointments.

She said she finds it "ridiculous" that she has "no other option but to go private."

"I'm making a conscious effort to look after my teeth a lot more in the event that I can't afford private dentists fees and emergency dental fees.

"I'm anxious about my health and about money as everyone is at the moment, so to not have an NHS dentist accessible is quite worrying at times, especially now that my only option is to go private."

She said she will continue to try to get an NHS appointment as the quotes she has been given for private care are "three times the cost" and she knows "for a fact that I'll walk in, they'll count my teeth and I'll be walking out ten minutes later with no issues".

Sarah Dickinson, 56, from Caernarfon, said she also tried and failed to get on an NHS waiting list after she and her husband moved from Halifax, Yorkshire.

She described her own teeth as "awful", with two being broken.

"One of them is where the crown's fallen off, and I've actually just got the metal stud where the crown was.

"But unless your face is actually swollen you can't get an emergency appointment."

Mrs Dickinson said the metal stud cuts her tongue and catches her cheek.

She said she also has another tooth with a hole in it, and is "worried about having smelly breath".

And after her husband drove for an hour to Amlwch to have a tooth "pulled", she said he was "told off for not seeing the dentist more often".

Mrs Dickinson and her husband have to live off about £900 a month after she was forced to retire early because of ill health.

She said they cannot risk going private because she needs her savings to last 12 years.

"We are in despair, as our teeth are only going to get worse," she added.

Heather Manson, 28, from Cardiff, said she and her boyfriend rang 10 NHS practices with no success.

She moved to Cardiff in 2019 and ended up travelling back to her home city of Leeds to see an NHS dentist.

Ms Manson said: "A year or so later I again rung about 30 dentists, and none were accepting NHS."

After managing to get herself onto the Cardiff and Vale generic dental waiting list in August 2022 she said she never heard back about an appointment.

But a month later Ms Manson decided to go private, because "it had been years" since she last had her teeth checked and she "thought it was the only option".

However, she was able to get an NHS appointment before she had to pay for private health care and has had a "smooth sailing experience".

Ms Manson said she thinks "oral hygiene is very important and should be a service that everyone is entitled to easily".

Betsi Cadwaladr health board's assistant dental services director Peter Greensmith said: "We were very sorry to hear about the difficulties Mrs Dickinson has experienced when attempting to access treatment and would encourage her to contact our patient advice and liaison service directly, so her concerns can be properly investigated."

The Welsh government said: "Nearly 174,000 patients who have historically not been able to get a dental appointment received one last year.

"Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) have launched a new local recruitment initiative called WERO (Welsh Enhanced Recruitment Offer for Dentistry), which offers an enhanced support package for trainees who complete dental foundation training in specific rural dental practices in west, north and central Wales."