Dental Issues During Pregnancy

[periwinkle86]

We moved to our current area shortly before covid and I never got around to registering at a dentist (stupid, I know). I assumed it would be a relatively straightforward process of finding one locally that takes NHS patients, registering and booking an appointment. Not so!

I have had quite bad bleeding gums during pregnancy, which seem to have got worse lately (not helped by not being able to brush my back teeth without gagging since getting pregnant) and am trying to register at a dentist to get an appointment to to get them looked at. However no dentists anywhere near me seem to be taking NHS patients, and I’ve looked in quite a wide radius! I’ve found one that has an 18-24 month waiting list, and another that is taking NHS patients but doesn’t have any appointments until April 2022 - and that’s it!

Has anyone else had this problem? Any tips on how to resolve it?

It seems ridiculous that pregnant women are encouraged to get their teeth taken care of and given free NHS healthcare but can’t make an appointment within six months. Perhaps it’s covid backlog? I’m worried enough about my gums that I could pay to go private but that seems a bit silly when in theory I get NHS dentistry for free.

Can you not use the NHS emergency dentist? We have one in our area that can be used you don't have dentist or urgently need treatment when the normal dentist is closed. You should be able to get the number from a dentist or ring one out of hours they normally have the emergency contact details on their out of hours message.

Thank you for your reply. I did think about that, just not sure this counts as an emergency at this stage - though I guess it might if I have to wait until next April for an appointment! It certainly needs looking at but not causing lots of pain or anything.

That sounds rubbish.

A word of warning though - I have an NHS dentist and saw them last week for bleeding gums, I’m 21 weeks. They said it was just a pregnancy thing, and to use Corsodyl (the alcohol free one), which does seem to have helped. They won’t do any in-depth looks or X-rays etc in pregnancy.

I went again for my standard “check up” yesterday as it was missed due to Covid… they said my gums are really inflamed, and they’ve put two of my teeth on “watch”, but again they won’t do anything while I’m pregnant so I’ve got to go back after the baby is born.

So I’d grab some Corsodyl in the meantime and not expect too much - it could just be my dentist, but I saw two different people who had the same view that dental work in pregnancy is very limited and they won’t do much, so it might be standard policy too.

You only ever have one set of teeth - they can’t be replaced.

I’d get myself to a private dentist if you are worried!

Private dentist for a hygienist appointment, it's about £80 here, can get it same week and it's safe during pregnancy and removed the plaque which irritates the gums

Thank you all for your replies. I think I’m going to get some corsodyl and book a private appointment. Chances are if they can’t do too much in pregnancy anyway it won’t come with loads of follow up appointments that cost the earth and hopefully by the time the baby’s born I will have been able to track down an NHS dentist.

Still seems like a very flawed system though to offer pregnant women free NHS dental care but then to make it pretty much inaccessible!

I experienced this too so I sympathise. I got pregnant at the start of the first lockdown and I finally managed to see my dentist last week.

Just a word of warning that corsodyl stains teeth quite badly.

The corsodyl daily is better for staining, and I find it as good. Also dipping some floss in corsolyl and flossing with it can help

I had my dentist checkup last week and the dentist reassured me that any dental work is safe in pregnancy if I needed it. So I think it might depend on your practice. I declined X-rays and I’ll go back a month or so after is baby born to get them and see how my teeth are.

Just to answer your other question, it’s not a covid backlog. We signed up for the NHS dentist in 2017 and we were told that it was an 18 month waiting list which we agreed to. They did actually manage to get us seen in about 6 months though. So I would pay for private at the moment but get on a waiting list and hopefully it won’t be as long as they say.