There are reports of an increasing number of people who perform their own dental work, as they are unable to receive dental treatment on the NHS or are unable to afford private dental care. Therefore, such people are being forced to take worrying actions and solve the problems themselves such as pulling out their own teeth. As a result, many are ending up with serious personal injuries. Can the lack of available healthcare be classed as medical negligence?

A survey of 5,200 patients carried out by the Commission for Patients and Public Involvement in Health found that 20% had refused treatment because of the high costs dental care presents and 6% have even treated themselves at some point because they were unable to get professional treatment. Among the concerning results people revealed that they had removed their own teeth with pliers and used polyfilla to fill cavities and even super glue to try and fix broken crowns.

In an attempt to improve the situation contracts were drawn up which were designed to lure in more dentists to work under the NHS, but 84% of those surveyed revealed that their new contract had not succeeded in improving access to the NHS services for patients.

It was exposed that just 56% of people in the UK currently have access to NHS dentists, meaning that the rest of the population are left with only two choices either go private or pay the heavy price for performing the tasks yourself.

Sharon Grant, Chairwoman of the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health said: “It appears many are being forced to go private because they don't want to lose their current trusted and respected dentist or because they just can't find a local NHS dentist.”

Grant furthered: “Where NHS dental services are available, people are happy with the quality of treatment provided but many find the NHS fee system confusing and expensive, with some patients taking out loans to pay for treatment or more worryingly taking matters into their own hands.”

The idea of medical negligence comes into play as it appears that not enough is being done to help solve this problem and even if any attempts are being made to help change the situation then it is coming at a very slow pace.

Health Minister Ben Bradshaw hinted that it will take the government ‘some time’ to deal with the shortage of dentists and those patients unable to find a dentist to treat them should pay a visit to their G.P. Bradshaw stated: “Only 60% of us ever accessed an NHS dentist. The figure now is 56%. Last year we introduced for the first time a duty on local health services, on the primary care trusts, to provide urgent dental treatment to those who need it. If people need urgent treatment they should go either to their GP or their primary care trust and demand what is their right."

In theory this is a good idea, however in reality it is a different story. Even getting an appointment with a G.P for any health problem can be a task, so it remains to be seen how keen the government is when dealing with emergency dental care. Therefore, medical negligence cannot be that far from the truth when so many people are not being helped and left to their own devices. It could soon come to a point where seeking the representation of a personal injury solicitor in order to secure medical negligence compensation for unfilled dental work becomes a very real public problem, especially if people are not getting the treatment that they are entitled to as a result of a lack of resources.

Catherine has more articles on medical negligence