Cost of living: Dental pain 'brushed under the carpet'

Patients with dental pain say they are being failed by the lack of NHS dentists.

Melanie Fudge-Horton could not find an NHS dentist and was left with the choice of going private and paying £1,000 to save her tooth, or paying £50 to have it removed.

In the end she chose to get it extracted as the private bill to save it was so high it would have meant her family being unable to pay their gas and electric bills.

Dentists say they share the frustration and that their hands are tied by the lack of funding they are given to treat NHS patients.