No dental treatment available

[HopingItsNot]

In my neck of the woods there is zero dental treatment available anywhere. Daughter has cracked her tooth, lost big chunk of it and nerve exposed, in a lot of pain. No treatment available anywhere "until nationwide crisis is over". So look after your teeth especially well at the moment, as you don't want to end up in pain that can't be fixed.

St John's is a hospital. Daughter was told would only get treatment if a serious facial smash or something, should we still phone? @Mrsmorton

Thank you much by the way, I am very grateful @Mrsmorton

That's what the dentist said who answered my message. I don't know the detail as nowhere near there! They said to get your dentist to phone and explain. Otherwise you would have to go to A&E and hope to get seen that way.
As an aside, the CQC have said that in England they will try to get dentists struck off if they see patients and carry out treatment. Awful situation.

Fingers crossed OP!

Thank you, will update when I can xx

It’s a nightmare.
We are under orders from the Chief Dental Officer- no face to face at all.
AAA- advice, analgesia, antibiotics over the phone is what we are allowed to offer.
Refer to local urgent care centre if needed. Local urgent care centres don’t exist yet.
They basically forgot dentistry existed until quite late in the day, so didn’t plan what to do.
Some dentists are being redeployed to hospitals. I’m off with anxiety so will not be doing this.

www.gov.uk/guidance/dental-antimicrobial-stewardship-toolkit

There are some guidelines about painkillers on here. if she can, take ibuprofen and paracetamol alternatively as long as she doesn't overdose on either. Caffeine helps too.
Try to brush the tooth gently to keep food out, and a blob of sensodyne in the hole can sometimes help too

If the nerve is exposed, any of those things will absolutely knack. Keeping it covered with wax/temporary filling would be my best advice.

As Mrs Morton said. Dentists are stuck between and rock and a hard place. If we do see any emergencies in practice, we could get in serious trouble. No face to face AT ALL. Remote triage is the best it gets at the moment sadly.

Always an afterthought and it's our poor patients that are the ones to suffer. I hope these triage centres get set up and are functional ASAP and I hope your daughter is doing okay.

www.magliverasdentalcare.com/ I don't know where you are exactly but this reads like the centres are in operation. Maybe a direct call to 111?

Surely your dentist has a legal duty of care towards you, there hasn’t been a legal discharge of this duty. Are dentists not regulated by the BDS rather than the CQC?

I’m an optometrist and we’re still seeing patients in an emergency.

The CQC aren't a regulator but they have said they will actively pursue dentists who provide treatment. Optometry and dentistry slightly different procedures aren't they. Unless you routinely generate an aerosol of eye juice when you see patients?

Dentists are regulated by the GDC. Not sure what the BDS is except the primary UK dental qualification.

There is no legal duty of care by individual practices. The only one I would think exists is for local commissioners to commission appropriate care.

2 weeks ago I went to see the dentist(private).
One of my filings came out so he patched that up.
They explained that they didn’t do any polishing, cleaning or anything that involves spraying water/blowing air according to the guidelines issued( as of 19th of March)
I asked what happens if I have severe toothache. They told me to phone first and check. Not sure if they closed since.

I broke a tooth on Friday. I phoned my dentist this morning, who answered the phone and decided that as it was an emergency he would do it for me straight away.
His argument was that the longer it was left the more treatment it would need, so he was better to do it straight away.
I was lucky in that he picked the phone up and he was just nipping into the surgery for an hour.

It's worth phoning round and begging as you may find one that is in a similar position.

The Scottish Government our Chief Dental Officer have said no face to face contact with patients is allowed at all. Central hubs are being set up by each of the health boards for emergency treatment. Your daughter’s dentist should be able to refer her if she falls into the category of needing urgent dental care - they should be available for telephone triage during normal working hours. If she isn’t registered NHS 24. It is a horrible situation.

Direction given in England. I believe all CDOs have issued the same.

I broke my tooth and exposed the nerve last week. I was seen by an emergency dentist, but he said that they weren’t allowed to use hand tools at the moment, so he could either extract the tooth or put a temporary filling in. I chose the temporary filling. It’s been ok since.

@helpfulperson We have been through 111, twice, and ironically our dentist is the one mentioned. No go.

@FeedMeWell We have been through the NHS twice, spoken to the local dental hospital twice, spoken to her dentist several times who basically said that there was nothing they can do and they will not be seeing anyone - no info given about centres being set up, or offers of referral anywhere (other than being told to ring dental hospital who simply told us it was the dentists duty of care to take care of emergency treatment). To be very fair to them, they are excellent dentists at any other time , and possibly just didn't know.. But it's impossible for me to make something happen when nobody will give an inch. However, thankfully, the wax seems to be working at the moment, which I am very grateful for. It does highlight a huge loophole that someone should be dealing with though.

The problem is there is no protective equipment, ie the correct masks to do treatment, in my area they are still waiting for it to arrive. People then have to be fitted with the masks and make sure they work. Eventually all areas should have dental centres treating emergencies. Dentists should still be picking up answer phone messages and giving advice. 111 is not the right place to call.

I’m not a dentist but I do (normally) work in a dental practice. If I were you I would phone your dentist and ask their advice about using the temporary filling material you mentioned in a previous post.

@Flashinggreen We were told to call 111. We did not sit on hold for over an hour on a whim.

They shouldn’t be telling you that, Drs aren’t covered legally to give dental advice and it’s overloading 111. Your dentist should be giving advice.

Slightly derailing but I hate visiting the dentist with a burning passion and I hate paying good money for pain and terror. Luckily I have managed to inherit decent looking teeth, which means nothing but I try to look after them as much as I can.

So the next time I get a lecture from friends and dentists about how essential these visits are, you can bet your arse I will remember this. Slightly lighthearted.

In Scotland NHS24 do give dental advice out of hours so in certain circumstances dentists will recommend that their patients call 111.

When I ran an OOH contract, the way in To the clinic was via 111 so @Flashinggreen I'm not sure you're right.

How are you getting on OP?