ITV investigation highlights difficulties getting dental appointments
An ITV investigation has highlighted difficulties getting dental appointments across the UK.
Researchers and reporters from ITV investigated service provision and patient complaints and concerns in areas that have been labelled “dental deserts.” They found that many people who can’t get appointments are suffering with severe pain.
Political reporter, Daniel Hewitt, tired to get in touch with every dental practice in Somerset. Of the 25 he was able to contact, none had NHS places available. The closest he got to making an appointment was being advised to call back in three months. Once practice had an estimated waiting time of up to four and a half years and most didn’t offer an option to join a waiting list. One representative even recommended that Daniel gave up trying to make an appointment such is the extent of the crisis in the region.
Somerset is one of the worst-affected areas in terms of dental access issues but struggles to get appointments are by no means restricted to this part of the South West. Most patients that don’t have an NHS dentist in Norfolk, West Yorkshire, Suffolk and Devon have been unable to get appointments in the last year.
One parent who spoke to the ITV team said that they were trying to figure out how to afford private care for their child because they couldn’t find a dentist offering NHS appointments. The quote for the treatment the child requires was £800, which the parent said was over 60% of their monthly wage and “enough to bring a family under” at a time when the cost of living is spiralling.
Researchers found that people are borrowing money or taking out loans to pay for private dentistry and some are resorting to DIY dentistry. One patient, from Swansea, had extracted two of his own teeth because he couldn’t cope with the “extreme pain” he was experiencing and he couldn’t get an appointment.
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