Cancer patient criticises 'broken' dental system

Penny Bayer said she felt let down by the shortage of NHS dentists

A cancer patient who requires extra dental care due to the medication she is prescribed says the system is "broken" after failing to get an NHS dentist.

Penny Bayer, from Exeter, has stage four breast cancer which has spread to her bones.

She said the side effects of one of the 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."

Yvonne Glindon, from Totnes, in Devon, said she badly damaged her jaw in a fall a year ago. 

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.

She said she still needed a root canal treatment which was about £600, which she could not afford.

'Really angry'

"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."

National Audit Office figures published in November showed 40% of adults in England saw an NHS dentist in the 24 months up to March 2024.

This was down from 49% before the Covid pandemic.

Yvonne Glindon took out loans of £11,000 for dental treatment

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 Devon and Cornwall, 34% of adults saw an NHS dentist in the two years to March 2024.

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."

'Struggling to deliver'

Dentist and chair of the Devon Local Dental Committee (LDC), Ian Mills, said he believed we were now in a worse place than before Covid.

He blamed funding, delays in implementing a new contract and recruiting and retaining a workforce in rural areas.

He said: "The 700,000 additional appointments are not coming from new money, that's from existing money and from the existing workforce.

"Unless dentists and team members are working extra hours, that's not going to make a massive difference.

"There was a certain naïve optimism six to eight months ago there would be a significant change, but it's obvious this government is backed into a corner and is struggling to deliver."