Britain’s Home Dentistry – DIY Gone Too Far?
It’s no secret that a lot of British people are having a hard time finding a dentist. England’s two-tier dental system has publicly subsidized treatment through the National Health Service (NHS) and costly private treatment. Even if you manage to find and get registered with a dentist, your chances of receiving immediate treatment are very slim to say the least.
A recent survey involving 5000 patients revealed shocking results and stories: 6 % of the participants admitted to self-treatment using pliers and glue!
One respondent in Lancashire, northern England, claimed to have extracted 14 of their own teeth with a pair of pliers. In Liverpool, one of those collecting data for the survey interviewed three people who had pulled out their own teeth in one morning.
Others reported fixing crowns with glue simply to avoid expensive dental treatment they just couldn’t afford.
The surveys commissioner, Sharon Grant, said:
“Where NHS dental services are available, people are happy with the quality of treatment provided but many find the NHS fee system confusing and expensive, with some patients taking out loans to pay for treatment or more worryingly taking matters into their own hands”
DIY is definitely not the answer when it comes to your own body, but if you ever experienced the horrific pain a tooth can cause, self doctoring to stop the toothache might suddenly sound quite appealing. I couldn’t even bare to imagine the pain without a local anesthetic though, which is an absolute bliss when having tooth surgery done.