A cancer patient struggling with gum disease due to medication is unable to access NHS dental care, highlighting the growing crisis in the UK's dental system.
A cancer patient who requires extra dental care due to her medication says the system is 'broken' after failing to get an NHS dentist. She said the side effects of one of her cancer drugs was gum disease and she had spent £1,000 on private dental treatment because she had not been able to get an NHS dentist. 'There was a deal - we paid our national insurance, we paid our tax and the services would be there. Then you suddenly find they are not. I feel the deal has been broken,' she said.
In its manifesto, Labour said it would 'tackle the immediate crisis with a rescue plan'. Figures published by the National Audit Office in November showed there were fewer dentists offering NHS care. Ms Bayer said: 'I know I am one of many, but it is brought to a head when you have a disease like cancer because the disease exacerbates the situation.' She said she needed four front teeth replaced, but when her dentist went private, she had to take out loans for £11,000 to get the work done. 'I am really angry. Not just for me, there are so many thousands in Devon waiting for an NHS dentist,' she said. 'We have worked all our lives full time, we've paid our national insurance, we've paid our tax and now when we need dental treatment we can't get it.' This was down from 49% before the Covid pandemic. There were 483 fewer dentists nationally providing some NHS care in 2023/2024 compared to 2019/2020, and 4.7m fewer courses of treatment provided through NHS dentistry in the same time frame, according to the figures. In its manifesto before 2024's general election, the government said 'getting an NHS dentist is increasingly a lottery and the consequences are dire'. It said the most common reason children aged five to nine were admitted to hospital was to have rotting teeth removed. The document said: 'Labour will tackle the immediate crisis with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to areas that need them most
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