People are resorting to DIY dentistry because they are unable to get NHS care for their teeth, ministers have been warned. Labour MP Cat Smith told the Commons that one constituent had even placed teeth he had pulled from his mouth on the table in front of her as they met to discuss delays in dental care.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting meanwhile told the story of a man who tried to solve his “unbearable” toothache with a set of pliers, but “they kept slipping off and it was agony”.
As MPs took part in a Labour-led debate on access to GPs and NHS dental care, Lancaster and Fleetwood MP Ms Smith told the Commons: “I think one of the most difficult advice surgery appointments that I’ve ever had to sit through was a constituent who came to me and put on the table in front of me the teeth he had pulled out of his own mouth.
