This month’s episode is a look at (and commentary on) dental services in the UK; think of it as a scale and polish rather than a root canal procedure.
I had terrible trouble with my teeth during the pandemic. I couldn’t get the help I needed and so decay became worse, as did the pain. The result was injections, teeth extractions, hours in the chair for treatment including a root canal procedure, drillings, fillings, expensive X-rays and everything else that goes with it.
I was advised to try DIY filling kits, was on very strong medication to deal with the pain and I felt like I was losing my smile - all because dental services were inaccessible at the time I needed them the most.
In short, the pandemic laid bare just how bad NHS dental services are (not the care or practitioners, but the access and cost) and the state of the nation's teeth.
Thankfully, I was treated through the NHS and by paying privately and, though it was a long and arduous process, I currently don't have any issues with my teeth.
However, not everyone is so lucky. Millions of people are on waiting lists even just to see a dentist and so many individuals have resorted to draconian DIY dentistry such as pulling their own teeth with pliers to relieve their agony.
NHS dentists cannot take anymore patients onto their lists and it’s not economically viable for them to do so (or even keep treating patients on NHS rates). We simply cannot carry on like this.
Dental health is indicative of the rest of our health as well as the affluence of an area, but it’s not just people on the fringes of society that struggle - think about service men and women who leave the armed forces. They go from having an army or naval dentist etc to treat them when needed to having no one. They end up at the bottom of a multiple year long waiting list, waiting for a gap (pun intended).
This is just one episode full of my ramblings on the subject but I’ve done something research on this and want to point you in the direction of the pilot episode of Unreported Britain as well as the Northern Agenda.
As ever, there are thousands of relevant podcasts on this topic and lost of things to read, so I hope this episode encourages you to look into this area in more detail, even retrain as a dentist or maybe just makes you feel a little bit more heard if you had the same issues as me.
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