To think we should be able to get dentist appointments by now!

[ThereIsNoTomorrow]

Terrible terrible pain in my upper right wisdom tooth, its bleeding when I brush, hurts more when lightly tapped (111 requested i do this earlier)
The gum around it feels swollen, i phoned 111 this afternoon who gave me the numbers of 3 local dentists. They all said they had no space to see me, I rang 111 back and they said somebody would ring me back... this was earlier this afternoon, they havent called back and I'm in agony.

Why is it still so hard to get a dentist appointment 😭😭
Rambling here because I cant sleep for the pain, paracetamol and ibuprofen have worn off but have only taken them 2 hours ago

They won't work for NHS rates. The government won't do anything about it. Phone 111 in the morning and don't minimise the pain that you are in.

@Ponoka7 I'll be honest 111 went through the standard questions and didnt really give me a chance to say exactly how bad the pain is

My daughter had to wait over a week for an emergency appointment recently, and even then, was at the surgery for 8 hours before being seen. She was told she would be seen at some point that day, but would have to turn up and wait. NHS dentistry is a nightmare these days, and yet another skill that the government aren't prepared to pay decent money for, hence the dentists treating private patients only.

I can't even get an appointment via 111. Not in pain and no swelling. Pus and infected bone not 111 worthy. Just get told to find a dentist.

Things are bad. I had a shattered molar tooth a few years ago, before covid times, it was a completely healthy tooth and broke because I had an olive with the stone in (was meant to be pitted). Was absolutely gutted. The tooth was shattered up the roots and was hanging in four pieces, I knew it was a goner.

I rang 111 they sent me to 'emergency dentist' for free. It was a 15 minute appt where the dentist told me the tooth was lost and gave me antibiotics. I assume the dentist would pull it out but they said no are you kidding me this is an emergency appointment not for the treatment - there's no dangerous blood loss and I've given you an antibiotic. I was astounded.

I tried to go to the emergency dental hospital to have it pulled but they have now closed their 24 hr walk in and said the wait list for pulling teeth was approx one year. At this point I was like WTF? I'm supposed to have a shattered tooth hanging out in segmented pieces in my mouth for a year? Anyway I pushed it and pushed it with everything avenue I could think of.

In the end I paid £350 to a private dental clinic to pull my tooth out. Gutted. I'm on disability bens and couldn't really afford it but then again I did afford it. What about people who can't?

If it was that bad before covid, it's a thousand times worse now. Dentists have closed their books to NHS patients and taken them off their books by stealth methods.

For pain, you can get stronger pain killers OTC by the way. Boots have an own brand 12.5 mg codeine and paracetamol. They never used to sell codeine in that high dose but it's very helpful for the sort of pain that can't be reached by usual medication.

Were you not registered with a dentist before now? DD and I have been with the same dentist since before the pandemic and always able to get appointments fairly easily. I appreciate we might just be lucky, but we've been with them for years and they're so helpful. The owner of the practice even rearranged his hours for us to fit us in the week after next because "he can work whenever he feels like it".

I supposedly have a dentist, NHS too..

Only his premises are not actually wheelchair friendly. There is no requirement for even NHS practices to be wheelchair accessible of course...

So whilst he is my dentist... he can't treat me (he did when I used a manual chair but now i use a powerchair and can't sit in his bog standard treatment chair)...

So I am referred to an access centre - my chair fits - hurrah. Their chair is also not specialist enough. They could, in theory, treat me in my own chair, it reclines.

But they can't as neither dentist operating from that premises is tall enough to get in my gob. The dentists that are work from another access centre that... you guessed it, my chair doesn't fit into.

I am awaiting a home visit - yes, they exsist! - however despite being referred (by whom I never found out as both access centre and normal dentist said the other had to do it and I never discovered who did), and a call stating I am on a list, I still do not know who with, when, etc etc, nor can I contact them to let them know that...

I now have a huge dental abcess, its exploded in my mouth twice, im on my second lot of antibiotics.

To get those I called 111 - they agreed I did indeed have an abcess and this is a risk even without my heart condition - they told me one of 3 emergency dentists could speak to me on the phone and write a prescription.

1 and 2 were in fact closed, despite it being over an hour before their closing time.

3 quizzed me like a fucking Gestapo interrogation as to why i thought i had an abcess, who told me to ring them, who I was on a list for, who told me that, who referred me, no that can't be right, no a dentist can't write a prescription its too late, well even if they can the chemists are all shut, well how will i get to a 24hr chemist if I am housebound (er... i can send DP.. he just can't get a tooth pulled for me!)..

I lost my shit and said some very rude things by that point. Then I took the dogs drugs. They were beef flavoured, at that point, I actually didn't give a shit.

I called my actual dentist in the morning after a further 15 hours of utter fucking agony... and bless him he wrote a prescription and has since written another. Probably illegally, he hasn't seen me for 2 years.

The system is royally fucked and technically, I am someone who HAS a dentist!

Sorry OP. I can only empathise.

I need a root canal. I have done since March 2021. I’ve seen an NHS dentist about it 3 times but I’ve been pregnant / had maternity exemption for all but 3 months of that period. They wouldn’t do the treatment when I was pregnant and they’ve made it clear they don’t want to treat me because I’m exempt (and they don’t get paid). My NHS dentist is going private next year so I’m travelling abroad for treatment.

@canyousmelltoast yes you’re lucky. My mother-in-law had to wait 4 weeks for an appointment at her private dentist to get a crown replaced.

Of course they get paid for exempt patients. What a ridiculous thing to say. Exempt patients are a gift bcse they don’t go on about how they’re funding your 16 year old Golf with their contribution to the NHS fee.

The difference is, non exempt patients pay part of the fee which is topped up by the government. Exempt fees are fully paid by the government.

Astonished you think exempt patients are treated on the goodwill of the dentists private business.

@Silverdogblue you’re right, my post is entirely unclear, probably because I’ve been up all night with my children, sorry. My understanding in this instance was they didn’t get paid as much as private patients and they were waiting to be private and would treat me then. Does that make more sense? I’m not sure it does. I think I need coffee. The dentist advised me to eat on the other side of my mouth in the meantime.

You have my sympathies, OP.

I was in a very similar situation recently. It was over Christmas so most dentists were shut. 111 gave me 3 dentists to call, they were all closed. Got a call back after waiting 18 hours and they gave me an appointment with a dentist 20 miles away for 2 days later.

I ended up finding a private dentist that was open and seeing them immediately, they yanked the tooth out and gave me antibiotics. It cost £300 which I know I was lucky I could afford.

@WiddlinDiddlin Your experience sounds so totally frustrating - I think under the same circumstances I would have lost my rag a lot sooner, If i'm reading right - you still don't have an appointment?

@ThereIsNoTomorrow your situation also sounds awful - fingers crossed you can get an appointment soon. Many years ago I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed at once as they were impacted in bone - had it done under general anaesthetic in hospital. No doubt they don't do that now - but with hindsight, I'm glad to have had it!

You have my sympathy OP. Emergency dentistry in the UK is dire. We were given the run around by 111 for a broken tooth (weekend sporting activity), with the various numbers either non-existent, not answering, not actually qualifying for it, or out of area and can’t see us, you get the picture. We found a private dentist online. It was about £200 and the tooth was eventually lost, but at least I know I did everything I could.

The reimbursement for NHS patients is just not sufficient and nobody has to work for free.

@littleblackcat27 to see someone, no. And I've woken up this morning with throbbing pain in the tooth again (vs when I posted last night, just the remnants of swelling in the jaw) - I've half a course of AB's left (course 2!) so this doesn't seem to want to shift!

Can you afford to pay privately?

I looked into private, but no... well out of our means unfortunately :(

Hurrah for paracetamol/ibuprofen and the next dose of AB's it has settled a bit but the swelling has increased again so i expect its moved out of the actual socket, back into the gum and will burst again... lovely (but genuinely preferable to the pain i woke up in. Wonder if i bloody ground my teeth last night that really annoyed it?!)

That's crazy. How much would it cost?

It seems that either you pay for a private dentist, and they have long waiting list, or you are left to rot.

It's inhumane, but I have no solution unfortunately.

My dentist went private at the end of covid, no NHS dentists locally taking on patients, managed recently to get my son into one taking on under 17’s only, he's desperate for braces as his teeth are really misplaced, we’ve been told its a 3 year waiting list, he’s gutted! Sadly no hope in hell of affording it privately.

Why is it still so hard to get a dentist appointment

What do you mean by ‘still’? This isn’t a Covid thing, it’s a ‘government underfunding the nhs’ thing so that dentists don’t want to work for them and lose money, so they go private.

It’ll happen with childcare/nurseries next.

Unfortunately with the number of broken teeth and so on, its thousands and they wont start without a fair chunk up front to commit to that work. None of the dentists who could meet my disability needs do any of the nice payment plans :(