04 February 2024 , 17:35
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One of Britain’s top dentists is speaking out about the horrifying mouth injuries hospitals are fixing for patients forced to rip out their own teeth.
New national polling of dentists shows that 82% are treating gruesome cases of DIY dentistry.
Tom Thayer is a hospital consultant in Liverpool is responsible for dealing with the most complex oral health problems now swamping the NHS. A dentist for 43 years he retired in 2019 before returning to the frontline shortly before the Covid-19 crisis.
As well as people ripping their teeth out – leaving shards of tooth in their pus-filled gums – he has treated patients who had superglued crowns back on and says clinics are sending patients for overdose testing as they have taken too many painkillers.
Tom Thayer is speaking outHe said: “Sometimes we see the patient immediately and sometimes it could be a week or month later. They’re in constant pain and they can’t eat properly. What drives someone to do something like this? It’s like torture. We shouldn’t be seeing any of this. I’ve found it increasingly distressing at work. We see bits of tooth sticking out of the gum, inflamed gums as well as infections with pus coming out. Gums are torn and bleeding.”
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British Dental Association polling, carried out for the Mirror, also showed that since the pandemic only 14% of the 500 dentists asked UK-wide were not witnessing this DIY problem. NHS intensive care data showed serious oral infections such as sepsis have almost doubled in the last decade under the Tories – with almost 150 patients dying.
Separate data from the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre shows 2,820 mouth infections that required intensive care treatment between 2010 and 2019.
The review, published in the British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, showed 78% of patients sent to intensive care had developed sepsis. It states around one in every 20 such admissions died. A BBC investigation found 90% of English practices are not accepting new adult NHS patients.
The Mirror has launched the Dentists for All campaign with key demands to rescue NHS dentistry. Tom added: “There just isn’t enough dentists and people can’t get to them.”
Eddie Crouch, British Dental Association chair, said: “Day in day out dentists in our hospitals are seeing scenes straight out of a Dickens novel. Ministers need to take some responsibility. A wealthy 21st Century nation is slipping back to the Victorian era on their watch.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "We are making progress to boost NHS dental services, with 23% more treatments delivered last year compared to the previous year, and 1.7 million extra adults and 800,000 more children receiving NHS dental care. We recently announced plans to increase dental training places by 40% as part of the NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan."
“Further measures to improve access and increase the number of NHS dentists through our dental recovery plan will be set out shortly."