Thousands of British children ‘in agony’ await NHS dental care
The UK government is being blamed for its “indifference” toward the extent of children suffering amid a dental care crisis.
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Stephanie Ableitner, a volunteer dental hygienist, performs a screening on Devin Teague, 11, of Bentonville, Ark., seen at Colgate and Champions for Kids for SIMPLE Giving, on Thursday, March 27, 2014, in Bentonville, Ark. (AP)
Major flaws in the National Health Service (NHS), the publicly financed British healthcare system, have resulted in English youngsters living "in agony" for years merely to receive basic dental care.
The Guardian reported on Wednesday that data obtained through freedom of information legislation and analyzed by the British publication revealed that youngsters in some regions of England were waiting up to 18 months on average for general anesthesia dental treatments, primarily tooth extractions. Some children have had to wait several years to receive the required dental care.
The UK government was blamed by the Chairman of the British Dental Association for its “indifference” towards the multitude of children suffering from tooth pains needing dental treatment, adding that the “Children are waiting in agony thanks to the indifference successive governments have shown to dentistry,” complained Eddie Crouch, as quoted by The Guardian.
“Year-long backlogs pre-date COVID, because ‘prevention’ has been little more than a buzzword. It’s a perfect storm. Dentists are losing the battle to nip these problems in the bud, and struggle for theater space when extractions are the only option,” he said.
The Liberal Democrat MP for St Albans and Spokesperson for Health and Social Care, Daisy Cooper, depicted the British children’s situation as “heartbreaking”.
She stressed that “It is heartbreaking to think that some children are being left waiting in pain for months or even years for the specialized dental care they need. Every child deserves access to the dental care they need."
The MP said that the government is responsible for urgent action to address the dental crisis, which includes resolving the issue of staff shortages and reforming the broken system.
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Earlier this week, new research revealed that people in the UK have been compelled to extract their own teeth at home because they cannot access or afford an NHS dentist.
The Health and Social Care Committee's investigation of NHS dentistry recommended "urgent and fundamental reform," citing evidence of pain and misery that is “totally unacceptable in the 21st century." The paper quotes a YouGov survey of 2,104 persons taken in the United Kingdom in March 2023.
