Dentistry crisis puts patients in intensive care

THE DIRE state of NHS dentistry has reached breaking point with patients being admitted to hospital intensive care due to untreated teeth and gum infections.

- By Lucy Johnston SOCIAL AFFAIRS EDITOR

Experts have warned that millions of people are resorting to extreme measures when they cannot see a professional.

The scale of the crisis has been laid bare in a letter sent to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, signed by Eddie Crouch, chair of the British Dental Association, and Shiv Pabary, chair of the General Dental Practice Committee.

It warned that unless fundamental reforms are made, NHS dentistry will continue to operate in a “Dickensian” state, with thousands facing unnecessary suffering and preventable deaths.

The letter sounded the alarm over the Government's pledge to provide 700,000 urgent NHS appointments, stressing this falls dramatically short of the 2.2 million patients in desperate need of care.

This means 1.5 million people face poten-tially life-threatening consequences.

It stated the lack of face-to-face dentistry has also led to a rise in antibiotic prescrip-tions which it says too often fail to solve the dental issue, at the same time as increasing the risk of deadly antibiotic-resistant infections.

The BDA has called on the Government to create more urgent appointments and to overhaul the funding and contract system it says has pushed NHS dentistry to the brink.

Law student Nick Whelan, 22, was left fighting for his life after being unable to get a NHS dental appointment. His ordeal began in September 2020 when he devel-oped toothache but was unable to secure treatment due to NHS backlogs.