NHS dental surgery waiting lists have gotten so long that patients are being forced to wait until 2024 for an appointment, according to a new report. Waiting lists were long before 2020, and have only been made worse by lockdowns. Some people, unable to wait in pain, have gone into debt to meet private dentistry bills, while others have turned to pulling their teeth out themselves and performing “DIY fillings”. The Mail has the story.
A number of surgeries have thousands on their waiting lists and others have closed their books to new patients.
But some of the same practices will offer an appointment within a week to those who can afford to pay privately, according to research by Healthwatch England.
It found that one in three patients have felt pressured into paying for private care because of unbearable pain. Others say they have been driven into debt to meet dentistry bills.
Those who are unable to go private can be left waiting for up to three years to be seen, the report finds. Even emergency care entails waits of up to six weeks.
The delays can lead to “worsening of their dental problems and losing their teeth”, the report says. Healthwatch England claims public opinion of NHS dentistry has never been lower and highlights a “twin crisis” of lack of access and affordability.
The number of dental surgeries offering NHS treatment fell from 9,661 in 2014/15 to 8,408 in 2019/20. The British Dental Association said dentistry was the only part of the NHS operating on a lower budget than a decade ago.
Spokesman Shawn Charlwood said: “For too long meaningful reform of NHS dentistry has been repeatedly kicked down the road. Covid has pushed a system already in crisis to breaking point, with millions left with no options.”
…
The Healthwatch England report highlights the case of a patient who needed hospital treatment after they overdosed on the painkillers they were taking to ease their dental problems.
Others have been told to use DIY filling kits or have been prescribed antibiotics with no prospect of a follow-up appointment to treat the underlying problem.
Some who called NHS 111 seeking emergency care were told to “use salt water” and carry on calling dental practices until they could find help. Waiting times just to get through to a surgery can be over an hour…
Four in five of those who contacted the organisation in the first three months of the year said they had struggled to access care quickly enough. And the number of complaints it received about dentistry was up 22% on last year.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Dear Deirdre
My ageing boyfriend and father of my child has proposed
He doesn’t have a good track record in the fidelity stakes
He’s in a bit of a pickle over money and a couple of other things and could end up in court
I was looking over his shoulder the other day and saw he was reading up on Section 80 of The Police and Criminal Act, this is the bit where a wife cannot be compelled to give evidence in court against her husband
I’m not sure of his motives
On the other hand I could marry and divorce him screwing him for half his pension in the process
Confused
SW1
Make sure to dump him with the pesky kid.
My wife and myself go to the same Dentist, I pay into an insurance scheme (not private) and my wife is an NHS patient.
My appointments and treatments have continued unaffected whereas my wife had to wait for over a year for a checkup.
Strange that, ain’t it?
I’m a bit confused FP, what sort of insurance scheme is ‘not private’?
About 15 years ago I spent several thousand pounds over 18 months paying for private dentistry (largely to replace childhood NHS amalgam fillings and consequential decay).
I had to deny myself holidays in exotic climes to afford payment.
Having subsequently recieved my Certificate of Oral Hygiene I was able to obtain insurance for a few pounds per month to cover any further work that might be needed (thus far not required).
Beats anything the NHS has to offer.
I gather that private dentistry is now even more expensive but this is hardly surprising given that practitioners currently have to go through so many hoops to ensure Covid Safety that their throughput of clients has halved despite increased lockdown related overheads.
My insurance (£22 per month) only covers 2 checkups and 2 hygienist sessions per year plus 20% off any further treatment(s).
Our dentist has 3 levels of cover, NHS,Dental plan(my cover) and full private cover.
Sorry for any confusion.
The NHS has always been, currently is and will always be a disaster for the health of this country.
It’s a great subsidy to low wage employers. But that’s another reason to scrap it.
But if you don’t make regular appointments (for them to cancel, I pressume) they take you off their books! I didn’t book in for a while and I was removed. No warning, no reminders. No other dentists taking new patients in the area, either. My fault, I suppose, but I really didn’t fancy jumping through all the new Rona hoops, and because I didn’t have any issues with my teeth to actually need an appointment.
How many NHS doctors and dentists scoop up their fat salaries and then go off to treat private patients for yet more money?? I think we should be told.
I pay a modest sum per month for dental insurance. This entitles me to twice-yearlt check-ups, followed by prompt treatment if required. I pay for the treatment, but NHS treatment -when you can get it – is not free either.
My excellent dentist only stopped work at the beginning of the bollox, when the government cretins stopped everything. He’s great – and he only wears a muzzle because ‘if we didn’t, they’d shut us down.’
Private care may cost less than you think. Do investigate the possibility.
See my reply to Fingerache Philip above, well worth it in the long run.
Free decent coffee in Reception, invited to bring my own CDs to play during procedures, told a double vodka immediately prior to treatment would be no problem despite the probability of local anaesthetic being used. What’s not to like ?
And there is never a delay where you have to sit in a waiting room for 45 minutes. My private dentist (a plan for a few quid per month) has done all procedures throughout and is a sceptic. You get a totally different service when you are not a captive (NHS) customer.
Yes my then dentist gave up NHS work long ago (80’s, 90’s) Going private is more expensive but the quality of work is far higher, they can do things that are forbidden on the NHS for example resin fillings rather than amalgam which last a lot longer, so in the long term it’s not really that expensive (I’ve had NHS fillings that only lasted months before falling out)
I must say that changing my diet greatly improved my teeth, no more of that horrid scraping with the ultrasonic thing that blows the top of my head off
I just got booted off their register.
Now I get to pay 5x for the same treatment by the same guy, great!
Was recently sent a letter stating that I should contact my local MP (coincidently the MP for dentistry (Jo “might as well be a blue rosette on a broom stick” Churchill) as the poor dentist was being forced to see more NHS patients than he was comfortable with for safety during Covid with the extra cleaning time required and the costs to triple mask, so unless they rolled back their plans he would have to lose some NHS patients.
Amazingly, he has a place for me as a private patient….
I read about it in the BFP. Sad. Seemed to be a good practise, I used to take patients there when I was a volunteer driver for community transport.
Do you come to SITP? We are a good bunch!
SITP? Singing In The Park? Sorry, not familiar, reasonable singer though
Google reveals ‘Sceptics in the pub’ now you’re talking!
I didn’t rate them tbh, but that’s the NHS best I can tell, lies, mistakes, being patronising and the occasional misdiagnosis. Be interesting to compare the £££ deluxe service (proving you aren’t secretly my dentist in disguise that is).
“Gotten” -what sort of English is that?
American – you know, the lot from whom we are permanently divided by a common language!
Tudor English, as used by Shakespeare, exported to North America via the Pilgrim Fathers, which has undergone fewer linguistic, grammatical & vowel sound changes than British English.
Studied linguistics as part of my degree…
Always preferred the “Fall” rather than Autumn.
‘Garbage’, ‘rubbish’, ‘trash’ which many think are interchangeable but which historically indicate which part of the household hold the detritus came from. All three remain applicable to fergusons models however.
In many ways American is a purer form of English than our own. Same goes for Quebecois and metropolitan French.
I haven’t used an NHS dentist in well over 20 years because they are uniformly dreadful. My current dentist only sees the youngest in the fam on the NHS, (a privilege extended to all private patients, otherwise NHS treatment is done by the YTS dentist). Even then I have to stop him smearing their teeth in fluoride paste, which leads to weeks of intermittent nosebleeds.
Money buys you tolerance and that’s priceless so when I come in with my cray-cray ideas like fluoride free toothpaste and no maintenance x-rays, he puts up with me. He’s also v generous with the NOS.
Shortly after the first lockdowns were announced in March last year I was out on my daily bicycle ride when I came off quite badly – cuts, grazes and bruises down one side where I slid along the wet road into the curb – had a cycle helmet on but unfortunately still hit the side of my face – developed a big black eye and suffered a cracked tooth which eventually broke off a couple of days later. Everything healed up fine but because of all the restrictions and lockdowns I’ve had to wait until recently to even speak to a dental practice about my broken tooth never mind get to see an actual dentist … surprise, surprise there are very long waiting lists everywhere and even if you can get an appointment they want you to go through all the covid palarva before they book you in.
I have been to a dentist twice. I am 50. I mean twice in my entire life. Both times I got a filling. I saw it as a scam as soon as I had that second filling. Never had tooth ache. Not lost any teeth. Teeth still white. Dentists are as likely to be bent as car mechnics.
“—waiting lists have GOTTEN so long–” Grrrrr!!
The UK is at the point were it should import some Indian street dentists.
As with its Covid only Health Service and that policy’s consequences, it is the only country in the world that has these problems in such a size, and that should really make people wonder and revolt.
A few years ago I was travelling through the Atlas mountains and was shocked by the poor state of dental health I saw there. Many youngish people were already virtually toothless. I thanked my lucky stars for have been born in Britain. I wonder if any future grandchildren will be able to feel the same way.
However I must add that when teaching in an inner city school, I noticed from the bad breath of many of the pupils that general dental hygiene was not practiced religiously by everyone and exhortations to “clean your teeth morning and night” were usually met with blank stares.
I use a Denplan Dentist. Regular relaxed check ups and hygienist visits. Never had a problem getting a short notice appt if required.
My wife uses an NHS dentist. As soon as she phones them, the attitude is one of : ‘I guess we COULD see you, as a special favour’.
Tomorrow? I’m in pain.
Dear lord no! There’s a three week wait for a triage appointment.
If there was a similar scheme as Denplan for GP consultations, I’d sign up to it. I’m utterly sick of having to approach the NHS as if being invited to touch the garment of a Saint.
Many years ago my wife and I used Denplan, where your policy payment is assessed by the dentist and covers most, but not all, problems. As we had few it was far cheaper to change to another private dentist and pay as necessary. There were no NHS dentists locally.
Now in Shropshire we are both NHS, very high quality and no waiting lists. Shut for a few months during the pandemic although open for emergencies.
It is a postcode lottery.
More than just a postcode lottery though, I’ve had some really good dentists but they all took early retirement and the ones that took over the practice weren’t nearly so good
Corona cold #7 is being used to mask the collapse of all our public services by restricting them to the minimum