'County will lose dental desert tag' - health boss

Ed Garrett, chief executive of NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board, said it was working to improve NHS dentistry in Suffolk

A health boss has promised that a county will lose its tag as "the dental desert" within two years.

Ed Garrett, chief executive of NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board, told the BBC it was working to improve NHS dental provisions within Suffolk.

It comes after patients in the county reportedly had resorted to their own DIY dentistry after struggling to get appointments.

The government previously said it was committed to rebuilding dentistry and was working to provide an extra 700,000 urgent appointments.

"In two years' time Suffolk will not be known as a dental desert, but in two years' time we'll be saying there's a lot more to do," Mr Garrett said.

"We're obviously coming from a low base. We have, however, opened a community interest company provision at the University of Suffolk.

"That will be delivering 18,000 appointments a year once it's fully up to speed.

"We've got a long way to go, but my message is, 'we're on it'."

The new provision at the university offers urgent and emergency dental treatment.

'Patients are suffering'

Mark Jones, co-founder of Toothless in Suffolk and Toothless in England, said the issue of NHS dentist provisions was "bigger than ever"

Mark Jones is the campaign coordinator of Toothless in Suffolk and believed Mr Garrett's comments were made with good intentions, but he said he took them "with a pinch of salt".

"Unfortunately patients are suffering more than ever," Mr Jones said.

"As the population expands in Suffolk so does the access to NHS dentistry become more of a pipe dream for every day patients.

"The issues haven't gone away. People are taking extreme measures whether that be extracting their own teeth or taking too many painkillers and taking days off work. It's still bigger than ever."

'I couldn't get help'

Rebecca Stephenson suffers from her own dental discomfort and said she tied bands around her teeth to keep them in place at night

Rebecca Stephenson is a dental patient in Leiston and revealed she had to help pull parts of her husband's tooth out previously.

The town is well known for losing all its NHS dentists over the past few years and Mrs Stephenson said her and her husband were left unable to find any other services.

"I tried various different avenues ringing up all the local surgeries even one farther afield in different counties and couldn't get anybody to help," she said.

"Even 111 said you can really only get an emergency dentist if you have an abscess, some kind of raging infection, or pain that is just unendurable agony."

She was pleased to hear Mr Garrett's comments but feared her husband would not have any teeth left in two years' time.

"I don't know why they [the government] don't think it's important," she added.

"He's treated for his health conditions that weaken his teeth, he has drugs that weaken his teeth, but the dentistry is not part of the joined up service."

'Wait and see'

Hannah Woolnough said she understood the problems dentists and patients faced

Hannah Woolnough, chair of the Suffolk branch of British Dental Association (BDA), said the service needed a "fundamental reform" and the BDA was yet to see any "substantive" changes.

"Quite huge swathes of the population are really struggling with dental problems and access, so they have to prioritise it and do something," she said.

"Or they're going to lose a lot of voters' faith that the promises they make they are not keeping.

"There is hope, there's always hope, but whether that hope is appropriately placed we will wait and see."

The Department for Health and Social Care previously said the issue was a "priority for this government".

"We will reform the dental contract to encourage more dentists to offer NHS services to patients," it said.

In November, Health Minister Stephen Kinnock said Labour had inherited a recovery plan "not fit for purpose" and rebuilding dentistry would "take time".