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.

@Mrsmorton I missed your comment, no eye juice doesn't usually gush out, but we have to get fairly close for a long period of time.

We still have to see emergency patients due to our "duty of care" and I can't imagine ever turning a healthy patient away if I were healthy myself.

OP If you're not getting anywhere I would recommend contacting the dentist's professional body. I would also contact your MP and make them aware.

Contacting your MP may help especially if Tory, the government are responsible for providing the correct PPE to make it safe for dentists to treat their patients.

I believe the GDC are already aware of the crisis.

@underneaththeash not sure if you read the direction I posted that was given by CDO England and also, quite shocked that you as a HCP are recommending OP reports her dentist to the regulatory body for following the DIRECTION that has been issued across the UK.
You should be ashamed of yourself and you should also get yourself some situational awareness of how this is affecting your professional peers. Very glad to have left the profession and not have to work with snipers like you.

I didn’t suggest that the OP reports the dentist at all, I said she should contact them. I was actually being pleasant - I’m afraid I think it’s absolutely appalling that the OP cannot access to essential health care. I’ve read through the COVID-19 advise on the GDS website and there is nothing there to state that patients cannot be treated. That is why I suggested that the OP contacted them as you said that the BDS were merely awarding bodies.

Can you imagine if all the GPs turned round and said they weren’t seeing healthy patients who cannot he helped over the phone. Rather than argueing with me you could actually help the OP.

I don't actually believe you're an optometrist. The dentists haven't decided this. They have been told this is what's happening. You clearly don't understand the regulatory structure in UK healthcare.

Did you see above where I got specific advice for OP from the UK Coronavirus dentistry Facebook group?
Your comprehension skills are very very poor. Maybe leave the advice alone for now. You've made me so angry. Dentists are desperate to treat people but aren't allowed to.

I'm a dentist. In Scotland. It is a total nightmare. We are overlooked in the current health crisis. People are fighting for their lives and the NHS are overstretched at present, so I can appreciate dentists are an afterthought, and likely not to get any public sympathy as we never do. However the way we are working isn't sustainable. In fact it is dangerous and very worrying.
So many issues-

1. Recognised from the very beginning as the surgical procedure which has the highest risk of generating aerosol, so danger of transmitting virus
2. Can't work at all. "Advice, analgesics and antibiotics".

Antibiotics are rarely the answer, and we have spent years trying to avoid prescribing due to resistance. Feeling VERY uncomfortable about this and breaking my heart not being able to help people properly.

1. We DO have a referral pathway in theory, but at present, the designated centres are lacking specific PPE, as are we, so aren't really able to do much more either
2. We can't furlough workers if we want to accept NHS funding.
3. If we accept NHS funding, we may just about survive, but our overheads remain the same and any private work is redundant. So we can't possibly pay all our staff.
4. We will all likely be redeployed back to help NHS medics on the front line
5. When this is all over there will be a massive fall out- so much remedial work required, anxious patients complaining..
6. Uncertain when we can ever resume normal service.

And the worry that toothache, abscesses etc may lead to sepsis and other problems.

I'm not sure where pp got BDS from as a governing body? Never heard that before.
We are ultimately governed by the Scottish Government and the Chief Dental officer for Scotland. These guidelines come from there.
We get paid via Practitioner services, who are trying to determine what financial packages NHS practices will receive as a bail out.

Sorry to hear that op. DS lost 1 tooth and cracked the other.

NHS111 found us an emergency dentist and got us an appointment. How far away are you from London? Kings College are still seeing emergency dental trauma cases if you ring them. Only weekdays 9-5 but at least it's an option.

Our local dentist also looked at pictures of DS teeth via what's app and gave advice over the phone.

OP is very far from London and has exhausted NHS 111 as a source of advice.

Sorry op - just seem you are in Scotland.

Funny that now dentists are classed as an essential service. Not included in rates relief or cash grants, down turn in patients (whether you are private or nhs). Asked with incredulity about whether they should have any sympathy for their financial concerns on another thread.

But now, with toothache, the fact they aren’t allowed to stay open (forget the fact many are facing financial ruin) is a cause for concern.

Dentists are different to optometrists - they work in the mouth - not just near a patient. By working in the mouth they produce aerosols , which can spread the virus. Dentists have not been permitted to buy the PPE equipment that medics have. This is despite the fact the aerosols are the same as those released in intensive care, when full protection is rightly demanded. The risk is that the dentist may catch it AND spread it to the next patient.

Now that the rule has gone out, the dentist would be breaching their duty of care if they treated patients. So by not treating them, they are actually doing the right thing, whilst watching their businesses crumble.

The MPs are aware - they have been told by many dentists. The BDA is making their best case. Nothing has changed.

And it isn’t going to get any better. With the number of private and nhs dentists which will go to the wall given the lack of financial support for them, there will be a shortage for years to come.

I should add that it’s no surprise that, despite having the correct protective kit (which dentists are not allowed to buy), ENT surgeons have sadly been the most affected I believe, with the first deaths.

I am married to a dentist and have been worried sick re their health whilst they fulfilled their duty of care to patients.

Now we only need to worry that they have zero income (as earn too much as a straight sole trader) and have a business with high running costs but no income for the foreseeable future. Ironically this is less worrying than when they were still providing face to face care.

I cracked a tooth two weeks ago and my choice was total tooth extraction or a blob of temporary filling to protect the damaged bit, with a view to a real filling in two months. They can’t drill, suck or skoosh anything around you. I chose the blob of temporary filling.

I was told that if it didn’t settle I should call 111 where I would be referred to a centre where they could do more as they’d have the protection for themselves. My dentist just had the usual stuff so couldn’t do anything more.

I’m in Glasgow.

This dental treatment crisis has JUST become news, apparently

@HopingItsNot

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52197788?