NHS dentists: Nearly half of adults have not been seen

[Northerner]

Almost half of adults in Wales have not seen a dentist in the past two years, according to the latest Welsh government statistics.

Opposition parties say more should be done to increase access to NHS dentists.

But the Welsh government insists there have been real improvements in recent years.

It said 34,000 more patients were seeing a dentist at the end of last year compared to two years previously.

The figures show that 52% of adults in Wales were treated by a dentist in the 24 months before 31 December last year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-27626199

 

[Fluffy Jo]

Northerner will you stop posting dentist stuff!! I had x rays done last Wednesday and had the choice of either a crown for £220 or have the tooth taken out for £50....so seeing as its a tooth at the back that you cant see..its going! Im dreading it...shes doing it next Friday 😱

 

[Northerner]

Northerner will you stop posting dentist stuff!! I had x rays done last Wednesday and had the choice of either a crown for £220 or have the tooth taken out for £50....so seeing as its a tooth at the back that you cant see..its going! Im dreading it...shes doing it next Friday 😱

I had that choice a few years back...and I went for losing the tooth also! It was one that had been root-filled, and then repaired several times. Interestingly, the problem I had with it occurred a few months before I was diagnosed, and it was due to a flare-up of the infection I had had originally ten years earlier. My high blood sugar levels leading up to my diagnosis must have made conditions ripe for the tiny bit of bacteria left behind 😱

Happy to say that, since diagnosis, I have had no problems with my teeth 🙂 I hope things go well for you next Friday!

 

[Fluffy Jo]

Yep she said id had an infection in it.Id chipped it last summer at a BBQ (my sisters cooking) and because it didn't hurt,i left it.She said if id just gone to see her then,it would have just needed a filling.Lesson learnt.

 

[Vicsetter]

If they wore fluorescent hats more people would see them

 

[trophywench]

It's SOOOO expensive though. If you aren't on millions of Benefits that is.

And everything takes so long. I had a new denture made before Xmas, which broke on January 10th whilst we were in Portugal. We came back in the middle of March, had appts booked for April 4th anyway, went to that, the denture is being replaced under guarantee so that will be free, but so far we haven't finished taking the impressions.

You book the visit for the impression. The wax blank comes back with trays made to fit your mouth. They take more impressions. The blank doesn't even fit in your mouth. So another wax blank comes back. It still doesn't fit so they hack a lot of it away and now I have to go again next week, and I don't know how many more visits it will be before I get the new set of actual teeth, and when I do how many times I will need to return to have it adjusted. Before Xmas, once I got the teeth it was 3 or 4 times, I forget which.

Meanwhile I am wearing the cobalt chrome ones I had in 1985. Of course they don't fit very well, don't have enough teeth now and are damaging my gums - but I can't go out with no front teeth and can't eat without them - so what can I do? They won't make me cobalt chrome ones now. I told them acrylic would just snap like every set of acrylic ones I have ever had, does, but the NHS won't so that's that unless I want to pay £1,000.

I am loath to do that anyway cos they made me CC ones before, which I could never get in my mouth, cos they didn't fit. And yes this is a different dentist ....

Incidentally I take the first available appt each time, and so far this round they've cancelled twice with a deferral of 3 weeks each time, so none of the delay is on my part.