Can anyone tell me why dentists are being so protected?

[Carrotcakeforbreakfast]

So my tooth cracked yesterday crown to root.
Called dentist and they said call back tomorrow.

Last night half of said tooth broke off but roots are still in the gum.
Im in absolute agony.
Called up and they said buy a temporary filling kit and gargle with saltwater as we are not doing any face to face.

I'm an ahp frontline too
I have to carry on

Face to face with suspected
Face to face with ventilated confirmed.

Why can't dentists do emergency only witn the ppe we are being told to wear?

On a practical note any advice on what I can do for the pain? I have clove oil and it hasn't done much

Co-codomal hasn't done anything
I'm meant to be back at work tomorrow too. They really need me but I cannot think straight for the pain.

Well given the news yesterday my husband won’t be volunteering. He will get no financial help so he’s trying for a supermarket job. If they had helped us, he could have helped them. But we need to eat.

That’s a shame @Forgotten2020. All the protocols and triage details are online here.

Orajel extra strength is good and numbs the tooth.
You can buy it on EBay.

Orajel is fangtastic sorry cheesy I know!

Max of 4/5 applications in 24 hours or something.. but who's counting

Dental nurses are being trained as nurses, they have to go and do bed baths, according to my dil, her cousin is being made to, whether she wants to or not.

Here’s the info they have been given for pain

Are you able to manage the pain with pain relief? If yes then over the counter analgesics

1. Paracetamol if there are no contraindications
2. Ibuprofen if there are no contraindications
3. Alternating or taking both of these analgesics
4. Consider prescribing Diclofenac 50mg three times per day for 5 days for severe pain

If the patient has a history of a previous or active peptic ulcer or gastric problems you may want to consider advising patient to buy Omeprazole 20mg x 1 per day for 5 days along with the Diclofenac.

Ask the patient to phone back if symptoms do not improve after 48 hours or if a swelling appears - then follow the swelling guidance.

If patient is unable to manage pain with over the counter analgesics the
consider referral to PDS Special Care Hub.

I actually did take pliers to a tooth, many years ago, when my dental practice went private and kicked out all nhs clients. Tooth broke on the Monday and only nhs service available was queuing to see someone on a Sunday! Out came the pliers, into boiling water to sterilise them, then out came the tooth! Wouldn’t recommend, it was horrendous.

Her cousin is being made to
On pain of what...what will they do to her if she doesn't comply?

Then out came the tooth
😳😱😳
OMG you poor thing, what happened, is it ok now?

UYScuti

Lose her job, apparently. It wasn't open to negotiation, and was told as NHS employed she has to.
I suppose like other professions not given the choice like teachers, supermarket staff.

Phone nhs 111. They can get you booked for an emergency dentist appointment. Good luck. X

@Carrotcakeforbreakfast, my local hospital has a dental department (I was referred as a very nervous patient to have an extraction under local anaesthetic). Could you see if you can get help that way?

Can anyone post a link to the hub they were referring to above? Just called our nhs trust and they have no knowledge

It would be good to know which organisation is in change in other areas

I am a retired dentist; in Scotland Dentists were told to stop working by Scottish Government my friend who was still working said masks had been rationed for weeks 100 per week per practice ( that is enough for 50 patients as both dentist and nurse wear them) a small 2 dentist practice would see 50-70 patients a day
They were told to stop doing anything involving drills or scalers first just temporary fillings and extractions, then a few days later stop altogether and emergency dentistry would be on a rota of dentists at central locations. ( where PPE was) It is not dentists downing tools but basically being told to stop work unless you can get the new masks which you can't you can't even get the ordinary ones

for the OP a temporary filling may help a bit as it at least will block hole from pain being made worse by heat /cold and take away rough edge though from what you say the pain is getting worse and unmanageable even with painkillers so you will need to ring 111 to find out where you should go in your area I do hope you get seen today though it might mean an extraction rather than root canal which would be normal

some of the problems are also caused by the selfish people who stole masks / sanitisers etc those profiteering by selling boxes to public via ebay amazon etc at extortionate prices instead of letting NHS buy them at normal prices

I’ve a horrendous toothache in the past a few times. Antibiotics have always worked for me but sometimes take about 3 or 4 days to kick in. Hope you feel better soon.

I recently had a painful abscess caused by an infected gum pocket 😱 it came up over a weekend and while waiting to see my dentist I took extract of plantago, a herb which is good for inflammation, plus a homeopathic ‘antibiotic’ called War, used to fight off infection.

My dentist offered antibiotics but I didn’t need them as after a good clean at the periodontist the infection abated.

But as the gum pocket isn’t going away I’m scared it will come back....if it does the dentist says the tooth needs to be taken out. Just hoping it soldiers on until this nightmare is over.

Fizz I'm so sorry that sounds very upsetting, would a waterpik style thing help you?
My gums are better since using mine regularly, I find using salt water in it also helps

That’s a great idea, thanks @UYScuti.

It’s not only dentists, vets are only consulting by phone 😷🥺 one of my dogs is ill and it’s awful.... I’m starting to feel that the ‘cure’ is worse than the virus.

Nobody should be made to work without adequate PPE - a surgical mask and basic visor are probably not adequate for dental procedures. Plus some dentists are being redeployed as well. Honestly it's just chaos at the moment despite the government promising things.

I'm sorry to hear about your tooth.

Well earlier I had a horrible taste in my mouth and the pain seems to have subsided.
I'm thinking there was an abscess and it has popped.

I'm at work tomorrow and I'm going to call the dental clinic tomorrow to see if they'll help me out
I'm happy for the tooth to just come out in all honesty as while the pain is manageable now the rough edge is making my tongue sore and I'm just super aware it could all flare up again.

You said clove oil didn't work. As an alternative you could chew a clove on the affected part. Has an anaesthetic effect.

Sunflower20 - I agree it’s chaos. No one from nhs England seems to know where our hub is. Pleased it’s improved OP.

@ UYScuti nhs England have said that they will continue to pay on the nhs dental contracts as long as the dentist and their staff are willing to be redeployed to Assist the Covid-19 pandemic. So for a lot of practices is either lose you income potentially for practice or do as they say.

They are also making it a condition that they pay staff 100 % but private work subsidises nhs, so they can not afford to if they are mixed. And the nhs does not employ the nurse etc - their contract is with the dental surgery. The nhs has said all their data has to be sent to them from the letter I saw on the blog. I am not sure how that works with gdpr. If your nhs contract is small, lots will hand it back as it doesn’t make sense to do it financially. They can’t get the 80% scheme if they do this. So unless they are fully nhs, lots I hear are taking the view they can’t do this