Past, Present, and Painful Prospects

Over the last year, around six million adults in the UK have had long-lasting pain that lasted over two weeks caused by toothache. A shocking 8,846 people were diagnosed with mouth cancer and around 3,034 of those lost their lives. That's 8 people every day. When you consider that NHS dentistry has been around since 1948, it makes you wonder just how many people have suffered due to either an inability to get the treatment that they need, an inability to afford the treatment (due to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis) or have fallen foul to shoddy work that affects them later in life.

That is why the campaign ‘It’s Like Pulling Teeth’ was created, to shine a light on the many issues surrounding NHS dentistry at present and to push for the government to increase funding so people don’t have to go without basic care.

People like Nathan Cullen, a 32-year-old Design Engineer from Manchester, lost faith in NHS dentistry over a decade ago when he experienced less than adequate treatment. Something he called “a failure from the people he trusted to provide the most basic of human rights.”

“I had four root canals done across two of my back teeth by the NHS, and all seemed great until several years later when I ended up with severe pains and an abscess. My face was swollen. I was in agony. This was around the time of COVID-19, and it seemed to take forever to even get seen. When I finally did get in all that was offered was antibiotics, with no agreed return date to fix the issue (aftercare) or even an apology for the poor work done before. It felt like they wanted nothing to do with me. So, in the end, I chose to go private, and shockingly the private dentist said it was a matter of urgency that the dead tooth be removed for my health.” - he said.

Nathan isn’t the only one who has had poor experiences with NHS dentists, with NHS digital recording over 60,000 complaints regarding primary care since 2016 alone, with 28% being categorised as ‘Clinical Treatment (including Errors)’. So why has treatment seemingly become so poor, and what are the most probable causes?

A big red flag is the number of specialists that are leaving the industry due to either poor wages or reaching ‘retirement age’, with over two thousand reportedly leaving in 2021, however, those open vacancies just aren’t being filled as quickly as they are required.

Nathan believes that “The reason why it (his mouth) got infected was due to the poor work done in the first place by the NHS and the fact that I couldn’t get seen in a reasonable amount of time to fix it made it far worse.”

“It was already bad pre covid, I’d be waiting at least a month, then they simply didn’t have time for me at all.” - he said.

It’s admin staff, such as receptionists, that are seeing a growing number of complaints year on year, with over 2,000 being made in 2021 alone. Largely in part due to patients' growing frustrations over their inability to even get into a dentist (under the NHS pay structure) and being told conflicting messages from the people on the other end of the phone. 

Sarah Smith (name changed to hide identity), a dental practice manager in Manchester, says that their phones are “constantly ringing” with people hoping to be able to get NHS dental treatment. Sarah explained that the number of inquiries a single practice receives each day can be upwards of 10-15. This may not sound like a lot; however, these constant requests cause a backlog for current patients.

“It’s just constant at the moment’ she said, ‘We have even had patients coming in asking if our phones were down as they couldn’t get through. We couldn’t even call out to our existing patients.” – she said.

Data from the Dentist Oral Health Survey of patients found that 53% of respondents had not had a dental check-up in the last year. Of these, nearly 60% said the reason was either an inability to get an NHS appointment with their dentist (28%), because they were unable to register with an NHS dental practice (14%), or because they could not afford a routine NHS check-up (16%).

“Last month, 37 patients failed to attend their appointments, which equates to 11 hours 10 minutes we could have seen new patients’ said Sarah when asked how she thought more could be seen. ‘You never want to blame the patient, because they are just trying to get seen, and there is a huge amount of them that turn up to every appointment and are thankful, but then on the other side of it we do have a lot of patients that just don’t turn up.” Says Sarah.

“There are two sides to it though, one side is that we worry as these missed appointments leave spaces of time which we could have potentially used to see a new patient, however, they could be missing it because they just can't afford the treatment. We have had patients contact and cancel needed procedures saying they simply can't afford it until payday.” - Sarah

Funding has been a growing concern surrounding the NHS in general for quite some time with BDA board member Paul Woodhouse stating that the government is only providing about 50% of the funding needed for dental practices to care for every patient, meaning that half of the population was being left without an NHS dentist. But still, the public sees a price increase themselves even during the cost-of-living crisis, with the most recent being an 8.5% increase in April of 2023.

“I know there are issues around being understaffed and underpaid, but I think it's more about where the money is being spent.” Thinks Nathan, and it seems almost everybody agrees.

Sarah says “They (the government) keep their cards very close to their chest and don’t inform us of any changes until very close to the next change in pay structure” when discussing the upcoming changes in government spending. “We do have a meeting in February, and we assume that will be regarding the next steps.”

In the meantime, sign our petition ‘It’s Like Pulling Teeth’ to help save NHS dentistry and spread the word by following ‘ItsLikePullingTeeth’ on social media and share your experiences whilst using the hashtag - #SaveOurSmiles

For those suffering from dental pain in Greater Manchester, there are urgent dental care lines. Available 7 days a week 8 am – 10 pm, find your nearest care centre by ringing NHS 111.