Residents Face Dental Crisis As Practice Goes Private

The difficulty of finding an NHS dentist is something many people face, either because they have just moved to an area and found none available taking on patients, or because an existing practice has gone private.

Residents of Felixstowe in Suffolk face the latter problem as the A W Brown Dental Practice has revealed in a newsletter to patients it is to restrict itself to private practice only from April, due to a “chronic lack of investment” in NHS services, the BBC reports. It is currently one of the last NHS dentists in the town.

Not surprisingly, this has sparked a backlash locally, with pressure group Toothless in Suffolk calling on the government to “radically reform and fund the NHS dental contract”.

While A W Brown has held an open day and is now advertising for private patients, people in Felixstowe and elsewhere may be wondering how they can look after their health to minimise the need for expensive private dentistry.

This is where using oral health care products from the pharmacy can help, ranging from dental floss to mouthwash, as well as a good toothpaste and brush. 

Using these products regularly and well won’t mean you’ll never need to go to the dentist, but it will minimise the number of times you will need to go and therefore keep costs down, as well as avoiding a lot of pain and suffering to start with.

Dentists recommend that toothbrushes are replaced every three or four months, so acquiring one of these from your local pharmacy can go a long way to helping preserve your oral health.

The problems faced by Felixstowe residents echo those of people living in south Cumbria. Cosmetic Dentistry has reported that the decision of Avondale Dental in Grange-Over-Sands has left the area without an NHS dentist.

Practice owner John Carney said south Cumbria had become a “dental desert” with insufficient financial and staffing resources to sustain and NHS service.