Hang in there Taylor.

Hmmmmm I went to A&E and they hgave me more painkillers and sent me home

Jesus, this sounds horrific! Hope it's over soon. Look after yourself.

I have said this before but how has dentistry got so fucked up compared to the rest of the National Health Service?

Almost cause and effect - no-one wants to go to the dentist for a check up, because they think it's too expensive (works out around £3 a month), or it's scary (check-up is like rubbing your teeth - no drills, nothing more than the equivalent of a different toothbrush in your mouth). I always get a polish when I go, because it really does the trick. £40 every six months? Not exactly terrible for good teeth, is it?

So it's almost patient reluctance, plus mass privitisation as a result.

Purely NHS dentists - of which there are woefully few - are obliged to see only the ones who have saayed away from their dentists so long that they, or their children's, teeth are so bad that they are almost jobs you see on DIY SOS.

Well, £3 a month for a dentist is expensive compared to a GP. I am on constant prescribed medication and that costs me about £21 a year.

Also, many people, especially males, are reluctant to go to GPs for many reasons, not least being scared of the outcome if not the treatment.

There is something else to it.

My wife has a couple of friends who are dentists.* According to them, so she says, the NHS has shaved dental fees so much that it's almost impossible to make a living on them alone. So they do kids that way, but not adults.

*@Taylor, she's offered to email them on your behalf to ask if they've any suggestions, let me know if you think that would be useful.

Well, £3 a month for a dentist is expensive compared to a GP.

That may not be a fair comparison though. Dentists have a lot of equipment and supplies to pay for. In many cases their staffing costs are higher than a GP's too.

Taylor wrote:

This will cheer you up.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6g1I37_r1E&...youtube_gdata_player

OK so I saw my dentist today to work out a "plan"... and in fact, they signed me off from their practice. They don't have a periodontist there, they apparently can't refer me to a private one (which I couldn't afford anyway), and if they refer me to an NHS one at Guy's it will take a year. "It's very advanced, you need to see a periodontist immediately, and there's nothing we can do until that's done." Yeah thanks.

So I'm now without a dentist at all, in a lot of pain, still very light-headed and on the verge of passing out, I can feel the problems spreading into the other half of my mouth, and my current course of antibiotics finishes on Wednesday morning. I'm pretty terrified about what will happen when I've had the last of them. Not sure what to do now. "Look on the internet", the dentist suggested helpfully.

Have you tried Bart's hospital?

Taylor wrote:


Jesus Christ. This whole thread has had me clutching my jaw in imagined agony, but that's just fucking hopeless. What do they think you can do? Self-operate while watching how it's done on YouTube? I can't believe there's not an NHS option for emergency treatment. Is the system really that fucked?

Sorry I'm as much help as your dentist, and I really hope you can get some kind of palliative treatment immediately. Does anybody on otf in the UK have any better ideas/options?

I think this is what Steveeeeeeeee means.

The normal opening hours are Monday to Friday (except bank holidays - see details above) 8.30am to 4pm....

Patients seeking care are assessed and those with severe dental infections (facial swellings threatening airway) or extensive dental trauma are given priority. We do not offer booked appointments, callers making contact by telephone will be told if the list is open or full for the day

I'd offer to go with you tomorrow but I have dole/Work Programme shite all afternoon.

Eastmans periodontal department might be worth a go too.

I'm utterly shocked by the (non-)treatment Taylor is receiving.

Round the corner from where I work is a dental clinic where students do their thing. People with no means to afford other treatment can have their mouths seen to. This is in underdeveloped Africa (a nice part thereof, but still).

I really hope there's something that can be done for Taylor. There must be something!

Just rang NHS Direct. Got forwarded to a callback thing for emergency dental issues.

So they called back and said they'd looked at my "file" (i.e. the details I'd given when I rang) and they could book me an appointment tonight for 8.30, at the hospital down the road. "To see a dentist?" I slurred excitedly. "No, it would be a doctor. This is at the Whittington Hospital." I told them I'd been to the Whittington on Saturday, and they'd just given me painkillers. "Well unfortunately, I think that's all they'd be able to do tonight. That or antibiotics." Oh. It said in my "file" that I'd been on antibiotics and painkillers since April and they've stopped working. I thought someone had looked at that? "Unfortunately," he said, "that's all we can do."

So much for NHS Direct. I'll try either Bart's or the Eastman tomorrow if I can still speak.

I forgot to say - PM for Amor.

I think one problem with dentists is that dentistry is not really a caring profession, and it should be. Do people become dentists because they want to help people, ease their pain?

A former sort-of mate of mine's a dentist and has a surgery round the corner from my flat, together with three other dentists. A lot of people in the area are on low incomes. The dentists often waive the fees "because we know they can't really afford it." They make up for it by fleecing the rich patients from a few miles further west when they come to them for vanity treatment.

After the sort-of mate stopped being my sort-of mate (he's friends with ex-Fräulein treibeis), he refused to treat me when I went to his surgery earlier this year. He was allegedly fully booked - "today, tomorrow and forever more". So he might be a Robin Hood, but he's a petty Robin Hood.

Just been to another dentist. They told me I had to see a periodontal specialist, and said there was nothing they could do for me. Thanks for the help.

Then I fell over in the street because I was so dizzy. Still am.

Sweating and in unbelievable pain. Not sure what to do.

You're really scaring me now. Did you try Eastmans or Barts? They seem to be the main ports of call if you try Googling for Emergency Periondontist NHS London.

Taylor wrote:


Received — sorry for the delay.

Sorry to ask this - I've only dabbled in this thread because I get tooth-queasy - but what sort of figures are they throwing at you to get this sorted out, Taylor? Is this in the multiple thousands of pounds sort of thing? This is fucking madness that there's no emergency facility for someone in this kind of dental pain.