When Lucy finally found a dentist that would accept NHS patients, she asked if she could join with her family. She lives in Devon with her husband and two children and none have access to an NHS dentist. “They said no,” she says. “So I asked them to take my children, not me or my husband, but they said they couldn’t take the children without an adult.” But they weren’t taking new adult patients, either.
Routine private checkups are too expensive, so they opt only for urgent care, and only to the level they can afford. She has just paid £400 to have a tooth pulled – she could have had a filling, but that would have cost £500 and she couldn’t justify the extra expense. “My children not having a dentist really worries me. I nag them a lot to brush their teeth. What’s the alternative?”
