NHS dentistry is in a state of serious decay | Owen Jones

Finally, some outrage about the national scandal that is dentistry. The health of our teeth matters, but dentistry has long been a neglected arm of the NHS. The British Dental Association has just revealed that 600,000 people have made futile appointments with GPs over dental problems in a year, at a cost to the NHS of £26m. It’s a statistic that has provoked mockery – one person tweeted: “I wonder if the 600,000 people a year who go to the GP for dental care ask electricians to fix their roofs as well?” But it is not the patients who should be shamed – it is the government.

As the BDA points out, nearly one in five patients have postponed treatment because of fear of what it might cost. The government has slashed funding for NHS dentistry by £170m since the Tories first entered No 10, and it is expecting patients to make up the shortfall. This year, dental charges were hiked by 5%, and they’re expected to increase by the same amount next year. On the current trajectory, in 16 years’ time most of the NHS dental budget will be funded by patients rather than by central government. But the whole point of the NHS is that it should be free at the point of use, and treatment should be provided according to need, rather than ability to pay.

One in seven children haven’t visited a dentist by their eighth birthday

Even children, who are entitled to free NHS dentistry, are being let down by a system that is unable to provide enough dentists to cope with demand. Earlier this year, more than 400 dentists signed a letter advising that dental health was collapsing to “third world” levels in parts of Britain. “The NHS dental system in England is unfit for purpose,” was their stark warning. So severe is this crisis that more than 62,000 people – mostly children – end up in hospital every year because of tooth decay; half of adults haven’t seen a dentist in a two-year period; and one in seven children haven’t visited a dentist by their eighth birthday.

When dental charges were first introduced in 1951, Nye Bevan – the architect of the NHS – resigned from the government in protest. Sixty-five years on, the service is marred by underinvestment, excessive charges and a lack of NHS dentists. We should aspire to properly publicly funded NHS dentistry, free of rip-off charges. Tragically, we’re headed in the opposite direction. The teeth of lower-income Britons – particularly children – will suffer as a consequence.

NHS dentistry is in a state of serious decay | Owen Jones

A historical past of dentistry in photos

Pulling medieval teeth: a dentist with silver forceps and a necklace of big teeth, taken from the Omne Bonum, published in the 14th century. Photograph: British Library/Robana/REX

La Dentiste by Gerard van Honthorst. Dentistry in the 17th century. From Histoire des Peintres de Toutes les coles, cole Hollandaise, published 1863. Photograph: Design and style Pics Inc/REX

A humorous Victorian trade card (not used to advertise a dental office, but to promote fertilizer drills). Photograph: Buyenlarge/Getty Photographs

One more Victorian trade card for an early form of toothpaste. Photograph: Buyenlarge/Getty Images

A 19th-century Italian itinerant ‘tooth-drawer’, as they were then recognized. Photograph: DEA/A. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Photographs

A Persian dentist: Illustration from a copy of the Qur’an from about 1900. Photograph: Buyenlarge/Getty Photos

Taking the pain away: William TG Morton giving the first public demonstration of ether anaesthesia in Boston in 1846. Photograph: Apic/Getty Photos

A Meiji-time period Japanese travelling dentist carrying the tools of his trade on his back, circa 1897. Photograph: Buyenlarge/Getty Photos

The toothbrush gets huge organization: Hungary close to 1900. Photograph: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Photos

A dentist and his nurse treating a schoolboy, circa 1910. Photograph: Heritage Pictures/Getty Pictures

A dentist has a excellent seem in Germany, about 1930. Photograph: Roger Viollet Assortment/Roger Viollet/Getty Pictures

Usually a very good source of comedy: a still from a movie starring The 3 Stooges, Larry, Moe and Curly, as dentists, from the 1930s. Photograph: Vintage Photographs/Getty Images

Dentists go mobile: a dentist treats a younger lady in a mobile surgical treatment operated for the benefit of nearby schoolchildren in Cambridgeshire, 1931. Photograph: Keystone/Getty Photographs

A Chinese dentist who works outdoors displays his instruments and pulled teeth on the table, circa 1950. Photograph: Herbert/Getty Photographs

Gleeming autos: a fleet of Messerschmitt micro-vehicles employed to market Gleem toothpaste. Photograph: Thurston Hopkins/Getty Photographs

The very first dental x-ray was taken by C Edmond Kells in 1896. By the mid-20th century, x-ray machines have been in widespread use by dentists. Photograph: Jon Brenneis/Time &amp Lifestyle Photographs/Getty Image

A roadside dentist reads a newspaper in Karachi. Photograph: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Photos

New technologies: laser is now utilised for the therapy of periodontal ailments. Photograph: Voisin/Phanie/REX

Laser tooth whitening is now widespread. Photograph: Marja Airio/REX

Young children get a lesson on tooth care from a dental hygienist at a mobile clinic in Colorado, USA. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

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A historical past of dentistry in photos

Holistic Dentistry Will Make You Smile

Holistic Dentistry is a kind of alternative dentistry that considers the results of dentistry on the patients’ total currently being. It needs the dentist to take into account the impact of his procedures on a person’s general well being and mental well-getting. This added consideration makes the dentist query the techniques he is thought to use to combat plaque and preserve your teeth healthful.

Some of the major points where holistic dentistry differs with far more regular dentistry are:

• Holistic dentists inspire prevention as opposed to treatment. Preventative dentistry begins at residence and your holistic dentist will support to train you and talk to you about suitable dental hygiene. The subsequent stage will be standard check-ups along with scale and polish procedures. At these 6 month to month appointments, your dentist will be capable to tell if you are neglecting any parts of your mouth as portion of your daily oral hygiene program. The scale and polish is a minimally invasive cleansing method that will clean off any plaque created up on your teeth.


• When dental remedy is required holistic dentists will aim to hold it minimal. Rather of drills and scrapers they aim to hold your all-natural teeth in place for as long as feasible so as your teeth preserve their organic structure. Their weapon of choice is normally not drills and scrapers but is far more probably to be fluoride varnish or fissure sealants. When painted onto the surface of teeth, fluoride varnish tends to make your teeth more difficult and more powerful that means they ought to last longer. Fissure sealants can be used from patients with greater threat of decay and occasionally for patients with early phases of tooth decay. These sealants support to slow down and at times reverse decay.


• Holistic dentists will consider the effects of the resources they use on your total overall health and well-currently being. They consider to use biocompatible materials in which possible as this is believed to minimize toxicity which means they will not use amalgam in fillings. As an alternative they will consider to fill cavities in teeth making use of mercury free of charge bonded materials.


• Other dental treatments are harmful to your current teeth like porcelain veneers for instance. If you have veneers fitted, it needs your dentist to shave away a component of the front of your tooth just before fitting the veneer. A holistic dentist will examine other techniques of improving the appearance of your smile this kind of as a whitening formula or a type of porcelain composite that does not need your tooth to be shaved.

Plenty of men and women are vital of aspects of holistic dentistry. Lots of it tends to make sense such as preventative dentistry will have clear positive aspects to your total oral health. Often intervention is required and it is in these scenarios exactly where folks question the usefulness of holistic dentistry. Is there much point in spending income and taking time to use a sealant to cover a cavity when it is likely it will demand a filling in 6 months’ time anyway?

All in all, it is an fascinating new advancement in dentistry and much more and much more dentists are beginning to adopt facets of holistic dentistry into their every day schedule and treatment method ideas. 

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Holistic Dentistry Will Make You Smile