How do you get emergency dental treatment?

[Peaceplants]

DP hasn't had a dentist since his NHS closed to NHS patients, mainly because he hasn't managed to find one.

He's had tooth ache on and off for months and has gone on the waiting list for all the dentists that treat NHS patients in the area, but has heard nothing.

He's now in a lot of pain. Not really able to function in daily life, pain killlers having a limited effect.

111 have said it's not their role to find him an appointment, only to signpost him to practices which take NHS patients when they have spaces (which seems contarary to their website). He's tried all of them.

So is that it? We're a third world country and you just live in agony unless you can pay, or is he approaching it all wrong/asking the wrong people?

So the solution is to legislate that only dentists can own practices.

Government to provide capital investment reduced loans to dentists wanting to set up their own practices.

If we as country cant afford free or subsidised dental care for all then private dental insurance needs to be VAT free. Leaving subsidised treatment for those whose need it most.

In the meantime why should the NHS and tax payers subsidise dental training for private venture companies to line their pockets?

I am sure there are amazing dentists out there - I am yet to find one.

Personally I'd be glad that I'm in the privileged position to get my pain sorted pronto.

Our public services are a mess.
You know this.

Its not going to change between now & your DH ending up with an infection & possibly losing his tooth, so either buckle up & wait; or pay and get it sorted today.

I walked into mine when I developed an abscess above my front top tooth. They had me in front of a dentist within 20 mins who prescribed antibiotics and gave me the choice of having the tooth pulled that afternoon, or wait 6 weeks to have it done under sedation. I chose to wait and the appointment came through in three weeks.

Because dental students graduate with £100,000 debt already and NHS doesn’t subsidise treatment, most NHS treatments will lose a practice money and it’s the private side that’s subsidising NHS.

The NHS pays , on average , £36 per person treated per year (including patient charges ) and out of that all practice expenses , wages, training ,equipment, consumables etc have to be paid .

The government has cut NHS dentistry funding for decades and now the choice is go private or bankrupt. Even BUPA had to close 85 practices because they couldn’t make the funding work.

https://www.bda.org/media-centre/nhs-dentistry-treasury-now-no1-roadblock-to-saving-service/

I have been paying for private dental treatment for years but I do think to avoid the negatives of corporate involvement, you need to insist that all owners are qualified dentists. The ideal is the owner operator who cares about their reputation in the community.

So they do have their training subsidised by the NHS?

Fully private practices arent subsiding the NHS at all it is actually the other way round.

At £36 per person treated per year, including patient payment , how can the NHS be subsidising a practice?

In a cheap area a room in a practice doing a lot of NHS work will cost from £140 an hour to run .

The only money a practice gets from the NHS is what it gets for treatment . So let’s say for a check up, X-rays etc (simplest treatment) , that takes 15 to 20 minutes inclusding set up, wipe down, sterilisation time and writing up notes (for a complex check up can take much longer) that will earn one unit of dental activity in England and Wales. That pays , on average , £28 in my area. The whole running costs of the practice come out of that all, there is no more money given by the NHS . That is of course if the patient turns up .

40% of all new NHS patients fail to turn up for their appointments. The practice gets no money for them but expenses and wages still have to be paid. Patients cannot be fined for failing to turn up.

That is why , if you read the link I gave, you can see virtually every NHs treatment costs the practice money. For complex treatments the dentist would be better off giving the patient £20 to go elsewhere.

I have two colleagues who have just given up the NHS contracts in their practices because they were losing , respectively , a five figure and six figure sum on the contracts and it was give up NHS or lose their practices and houses which they had remortgaged to keep the businesses going.

BUPA closed 85 dental practices because they were running at losses.

The government has effectively cut funding to NHS dentistry for years which is why dentists are handing back contracts because they can no longer afford to keep subsiding the NHS side of the practice amidst running costs that rise 10% a year https://www.nature.com/articles/s41415-025-8340-0

Dentist here. For anyone reading this, be wary. I’m not saying the helpline isn’t legit but I need to make a few points-Metronidazole is not normally the first line antibiotic of choice for most dental infections ( unless allergic to penicillin)
For that matter, neither is Amoxicillin. Phenoxethylpenicillin ( pen v) is the appropriate first line in most cases. This is clearly evidence based.
I also think it is very hard to diagnose anything like this over the phone. Usually an examination and radiograph is required to work out what the appropriate treatment is. overuse of antibiotics could lead to resistance. Which is concerning.

further more, if there is a genuine need for antibiotics you are best to start the prescription immediately, not wait up to 48 hours for a prescription to be sent via post.

Absolutely - however if you can’t see a dentist what other options do you have???
Ive always just been given amoxicillin and for worse infections, metronidazole. I’m just giving advice as I know how miserable it is to be in pain with teeth and unable to seek dental care, whether it’s availability or cost issues.

If you read my post I was talking about the training costs of a dentist that are subsidised by the NHS.

So yes a fully private practice in theory is benefiting from their dentists having had subsidised NHS training.

I am not disputing the whole model needs a shake up and had hoped that Labour with their majority would shake it up.

Interesting my daughter has been given amoxycillin and metronidazole for her wisdom tooth infection with her swollen cheek.

We had no choice but to go to a private dentist hub.

We will speak with the dentist again tomorrow and with her oncologist.

The dentist told us she might need a CT scan with a dental surgeon and shes on a tightly controlled CT radio level as shes had so many and is on a 4 month CT check up schedule.

The dentists are treating NHS patients all during their training, in most cases spending a lot of their final years in outreach clinics in areas of high dental needs .

Most will then spend at least a year in foundation training ,after graduation, treating NHS patients and many will do DT training afterwards , again treating NHS patients.

As a result of both the costs of student loans (£100,000) , costs of registration , indemnity , sickness insurance, locum insurance etc for most 50% of what they earn in first few years is taken up in just covering costs .

As per my previous posts NHS fees do not even cover the costs of treatment , so forcing new graduate dentists to work for a period of years which won’t even cover their costs is forcing them into bankruptcy . There has been no new money into dentistry for decades and no plans to increase funding . So without a massive government investment into making the service cover costs how will this work?

Let alone how fair is it that vets , doctors, engineers , lawyers and every other graduate does not have to be indentured in the same way? How much tax will a fully private practice be paying into the system and unlike many graduates a fully private dentist may very well pay all of their student loan and interest (which has accrued from day one of the course ) .

There are more dentists then there have ever been , but dentistry is so far back of the queue for NHS funding it can’t even see the queue ! At £36 total funding per patient treated per year how much would you get from a plumber or a garage for that amount of money?

The labour government , like every government in the last few decades , has already said there is no more money for NHS dentistry despite widespread consensus it is massively underfunded and has been defunded compared to the rest of the NHS. We are now at the rearranging deckchairs on the titanic stage. Manny of us have argued for a core service for the most needy and a basic emergency service but politically admitting no one is willing to fund NHS dentistry ,that we have been used to in the past , is very difficult.

Yep! I had an abscess on my tooth last year. Left me in loads of pain that ended up with me needing 6 weeks off work and costing around £2k to get fixed. Root canal, wisdom tooth removal, antibiotics etc. I could only get treatment from an emergency private dentist, which obviously cost a lot more. Had to borrow the money from my dad.

Metronidazole is usually recommended for wisdom teeth infections. Penicillin usually for dental abscesses.
amoxicillin ( contains penicillin)is a good antibiotic for dental infections but penicillin is the preferred choice as it is a broader spectrum, just as effective as amoxicillin, but less likely to contribute to antibiotic resistance, so it is much preferred now.

all this reaffirms my earlier post though- you do need to get a face to face assessment to work out the root cause of the issue

Thank you so much and yes does reaffirm totally the need to see a dentist.

Good pun!

A government review found it costs £300K to train a dentist. 200K doesnt have to be paid back.

100K student loans is like everyone else - lawyers or engineers or scientists can easily tack this up 60 to 100k if they do post grad studies they have to pay back too.

If all/majority of dentists are going straight into private practice why should the tax payer subsidise this?

If there is no more money what is the answer?

NHS owned and run pratices for basic care with salaried dentists who get their 200K NHS subsidised training written off and maybe all tuition fees for working a minimum term?

Dentists who go straight into private practice paying the money back or their employer or a mix of the two? Edited to remove choose as I realise they may have no option but to do this.

Legislate for only dentists being able to run practices?

I agree it is rearranging deckchairs on the titanic.

NHS 111 should absolutely be able to refer you through to emergency dental care. You could try making a complaint to your local ICB (Google County ICB) and see if that gets you anywhere.

We are fortunate in that we have an NHS dentist but, a few months ago, a back tooth started to twinge on a Saturday. I hoped to be able to hang on for a few days so that I could see my own dentist but overnight the pain increased to excruciating levels. I had a hot water bottle and strong painkillers but they hardly touched the edge of the pain. I was in agony and can honestly say that it is one of the worst experiences of my life. We found a private dentist who treated patients on Sundays and she was lovely. She removed the tooth and lanced a very large abscess as well as prescribing antibiotics. The relief was almost instantaneous. We had to pay £££s but it was worth every penny. You and your partner do not want to get to this level of suffering before anything is done so l think you need to get him seen as soon as possible, even though it will probably be expensive. If he has been having warning twinges for a while and the pain is starting to crescendo, there is a small window of opportunity before it gets to fortissimo. He could well need treatment on several teeth.

Maybe you could.

There's a COL crisis and not everyone can afford £10 extra a week for a consultation, especially given we have a national health service.

I have used a chain called Night & Day in an emergency. They’re open 24/7. Cost me £50 for initial consultation and x-ray.

He's reluctant to take the pricate consultation because, obviously, he needs some treatment, so £120 won't be the end of it ans if the treatment itself is out of reach privately, that will be £120 wasted.

Also, he does pay his taxes for the NHS and it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect that they might be there on one of very few occasions he's needed them.

I'm really surprised how blase people are about it. In the example of the pp who had to spend £2000 are poor people just expected to live in pain?

Well then he's being very silly and doesn't deserve people's sympathy.

The £120 is just to get a diagnosis too. Who knows (no one at this point) what it will cost to get it fixed.

He's not asking for sympathy, just affordable dentistry.