to want an emergency NHS dentist appointment?

[kentishgirl]

Abcess (I think), held on all over weekend as no services, calling round this morning and no NHS emergency appointments for a week. Now holding on phone for the nhs trust dental helpline for over 30 minutes.

Found a free training clinic an hours drive away that can see me on 6th for full package of free treatment (not just the abcess, yes I do need quite a lot of work done, terrified of dentists so been avoiding for years) - I'm not in that much pain (more a gumboil type abcess not under the tooth root) so tempted just to stick it out for another week and go there.

FFS though - what are people supposed to do? I can get private appointments but they can't tell me how much it's likely to cost and I don't have much money. Where has the NHS gone?

Won't your own dentist see you?

My NHS dentist will see me the same day or the next day in an emergency, I also live close to a dental hospital who will deal with emergencies. The service works well for me!

I don't have a dentist - I haven't been for over 10 years and I live in a completely different area now.
Finally got through to the help line (on hold for 40 minutes) and been given a few numbers of dentists who 'may' be able to see me. None in my own town offering emergency service.

If you haven't seen dentist in 10 years and aren't even registered with one, you are going to be bottom of the list when it comes to giving out emergency appointments unfortunately. If you had registered with someone, they would try to squeeze you in somewhere.

If you aren't registered with a dentist then you can't really complain if you can't get an immediate appointment, particularly if you're not in that much pain and are not feeling ill.

Yeah, I know, I'm bad. I kept asking for dentist recommendations and no one would recommend theirs, there's one family owns nearly all the surgeries in our town and surrounds (literally 10 practices)and everyone thinks they are terrible. So I have been looking, but couldn't find anywhere NHS.

anyway, took a walk into town and popped into a very small surgery I noticed that I hadn't realised was there (small doorway next to shop), tiny little place, and she kindly slotted me in. Feeling a lot better now, and made an appointment for check up and start of treatment for everything else in a couple of weeks. She's a bit scary (reviews talk about her poor manner etc) but just a bit on the brisk side really, just gets stuck in no nonsense, which actually is better for me (very dentist phobic, I was shaking and feeling nauseous on the doorstep) than one that pussy foots around.

...and in my defence, NHS 111 service I rang that gave me the health trust emergency dental helpline number said it was a particular problem in our area to find an NHS dentist, that's why they've had to set up a special helpline.