Today the Times newspaper gives us a shocking report about the state of patients’ teeth with an article called “The credit crunch has stolen our smiles” link to Times article
Comments such as “rotten mouths”, “fewer dental visits”, and “more extractions” make scary reading.
It seems that NHS dentists in England and Wales are doing less complex treatments, fewer children are seeing a dentist and more people are resorting to DIY surgery by pulling out teeth instead of visiting a dentist. In Scotland where dentists have a different work allocation system the number of complex procedures have actually risen and NHS dentists are “easy to find”.
It’s a sad situation when patients worry about the cost of visiting a dentist. We need to reconsider our approach
I think the NHS dental system in this country can be, in some cases, unfairly critised. My local NHS dentist is superb, I don’t have one bad thing to say about the dentist or the clinic. The problem is a lot of people, for a long time, haven’t had to pay for dental treatment BUT come on people, everyone needs to understand that the world we live in is changing. We’re gonna have to pay for more and more services and the costs will probably continue to rise. All areas of the NHS are going the same way – Blame who you like, the government, the finanical institues, the EU – It’s the reality of the situation we’re in and it’s not going to change.