A retiree left in agony from a toothache took matters into his own hands after struggling to get a dental appointment. George Glinos, of Childwall in Liverpool, has been performing his own dental procedures on teeth for the past four years. In total, the 67-year-old man said he pulled 11 of his own teeth. George claims that he has called on the first of every month to try to register with an NHS dentist for the last “four or five years”, but says that “no one is interested” in taking on new patients.
The NHS advises against self-treatment and asks people who need help to call the NHS number 111 or a local dental office.
George said he’s had emergency appointments, but they can’t give him the level of dental care he needs. The 67-year-old man said that he cannot afford private dental care.
“I haven’t had a National Health dentist for probably four, maybe five years, not for lack of trying. Every time I try, no one is interested in hiring new people,” George mused.
“I call on the first of every month, usually on all the National Health dentist lists, and no one is interested. No one takes your name or anything. In the four years or so that I haven’t had a dentist, I’ve had to extract my own teeth. I have a little jar here and there are 11 teeth in it and it’s all the teeth I’ve extracted in all four years. I just can’t get anyone to look at my teeth.”
George said the echo of liverpool this is affecting their physical and mental health. He added: “I have a tooth left in my lower jaw that I can use to bite things and basically that’s my life now. I’m having trouble eating, I’m having trouble digesting food, my stomach hurts. I just can’t seem to have a dentist in nowhere and I certainly don’t have the money for a private one.”
George said he takes matters into his own hands when the affected tooth, which hasn’t had treatment, becomes loose. He said that he sees it as the only way to stop the pain in the long term.
He continued: “When you have a problem with your teeth and you can’t get to a dentist, the problem doesn’t go away, so you keep taking painkillers and painkillers and eventually the tooth gets so bad it starts to loosen.
“That’s when I interrupt and force it loose to try to get rid of the tooth. I have to work on them for a few weeks and then pull the damn thing out with pliers.”
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“It’s unbelievably painful but what can you do? I’ve gotten to the point where I have 11 fewer teeth and now it’s normal, well no one else is going to do it. I have to either sit here and stay with the pain or try to reduce the time that I have pain and I do it myself”.
George said he thinks there should be more support, saying: “I just think there should be something, regardless of how bad the system is. There should be something there for people to get their teeth done. How can you have a viable life if Don’t you have good teeth? Your smile is the way you greet people.”
An NHS spokesman in the North West said: “The NHS recently announced the first reforms to dental services since 2006 that will support practices to improve access, including giving high-performing practices the opportunity to increase their activity and treat more patients. changes that benefit patients and staff are ongoing.
“The COVID-19 pandemic, which has had a disproportionate impact on the North West region, has inevitably caused a disruption to routine dental care and NHS dentists have to focus on providing care for people with urgent dental needs.
“It is important to note that anyone who has a toothache or urgently needs support, help or advice can phone their own dental practice in the usual way. If they do not have a regular dentist and have an urgent need, they can contact the dental helpline on 0161 476 9651 (standard local phone rates apply).”
