Dad yanks own tooth after waiting six months for NHS dentist appointment
A father was forced to yank out a loose tooth with a pair of pliers after failing to get a dentist appointment - saying he had no option.
Chris Langston, 50, was left in excruciating pain for six months as he tried to arrange an NHS dentist appointment to resolve the issue. His back molar had become loose, causing pain from eating, drinking and even talking. Chris says that he couldn’t afford the £90 private fees for tooth removals and that the nearest emergency dentist was over 30 miles away.
Instead he grabbed his pliers and ripped the tooth out in the bathroom of his home in Oswestry, Shropshire. He said: “I’d been trying to get an appointment for around six months but I couldn't get one.
Chris grabbed his pliers and ripped the tooth out in the bathroom of his home in Oswestry, Shropshire (Chris Langston / SWNS)"Private dentists wanted £40 for the check up and another £40 or £50 for the removal. It was £80 or £90 for the extraction privately, and I couldn't afford that. It was around six months ago that I felt it go loose. It gradually got worse, you sort of leave it.
"I’ve never had a major toothache. As it got looser it was really painful every time I spoke. I could hear it niggling. Every time I spoke or swallowed or drank or ate, it was agony. I wanted to go for an emergency dentist but that was a 60 mile round trip.
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"I couldn’t get there with the kids. So I took the pliers. I heard the prices and thought I had to suck this up. A little tug and a pull down on the pliers and it was done. I wouldn’t recommend it. Not to anyone. It was horrible.
“It was just out of necessity at the time, it was the circumstances. I can imagine there's a dentist rolling their eyes reading this. I was in the worst pain with the tooth. I could see it hanging out. I had the kids so I couldn't have the brandy. I had a strong cup of tea afterwards. It felt like a massive void in my mouth.”
It comes as the UK faces a crisis in dentistry, with deperate Brits unable to get appointments. Today the Mirror revealed the lack of NHS dentists due to chronic Tory underfunding was hitting children's oral hygiene the hardest.
Desperate Brits have told the Mirror how they have struggled to get appointments (Chris Langston / SWNS)Last year, the number of youngsters needing teeth pulled in hospitals surged to 48,000 - with two-thirds due to decay. And 70% of surgeries refuse to accept under-18s as new NHS patients.
Chris, who runs metal detecting holidays, urged the Government to take action to stop the dentistry scandal. He admitted he felt "weak at the knees" when he came out of the bathroom and nearly fainted, but says the pain relief was worth it.
He added: “What I had to do was get the pliers, because it was right at the back, give it a tug and out it came. It’s impossible to get an NHS appointment in Oswestry. In the future, I’m still left without a dentist, I can’t afford to pay private. Fingers crossed everything stays in place so that I don’t have to get these out again.
“As soon as I touched it, it hurt. When I grabbed hold of it, it was like do I or not. It was a shock. Quite a pull but it came out quite clean. The kids were horrified. I did it in the bathroom, I nearly passed out, I was weak at the knees. To psych yourself up, it’s a lot of adrenaline.
“My sister was like oh my God, but I haven’t shown my mum as she’ll say it’s disgusting. It was a relief. There was a little bit of blood. It pulled out nice and easy. There was a little bit of blood. There were two roots in and half a root out. It took quite a pull. It makes me cringe. The metal on the teeth is not a nice feeling.”
Chris says that since tugging the tooth out on Saturday (3/2) the pain has reduced to a dull ache but says the Government needs to get a grip on the dentistry crisis.
He added: "The week before all I could eat was soup and a roll. Now I can eat steak. The pain is not nearly as bad as it was. It just aches. It should never have got to this stage where I was forced to pull out my own teeth. The Government needs to do something urgently. It’s been like this in Oswestry for years. When I first moved here you could ring up and get an appointment in the afternoon.
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"You can only get a same day appointment at an emergency dentist, but that’s 30 miles away. The private is out of my realm of affordability." The crisis in NHS dentistry was demonstrated this week when hundreds of people queued up for two days outside a dental practice in Bristol to register.
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