Tales of pain and patience: the story behind the dentistry queue in Bristol

The queue was branded ‘a visual representation of the depth and scale of the crisis in NHS dentistry’. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

The queue meandered into the distance, past offices, flats and houses; there were hundreds waiting, shoulder to shoulder, old and young.

But this patient crowd were not tennis fans outside Wimbledon or mourning the loss of a monarch or hoping to purchase a bottle of Prime – they were trying to register for an NHS dentist in England in 2024.