‘Chemo wrecked my teeth, I can’t afford treatment’

A woman who says her teeth were destroyed by cancer treatment says dental care in the UK “feels like we’re going back to Victorian times”.

Faye Woodley, who is unable to work because of chronic illness, said she was unable to afford the required treatment to fix her teeth, which would cost thousands of pounds at her practice.

She said she had “no confidence” in planned NHS dentistry reforms and the current situation felt like a step back in time when “only the rich were well and had good teeth, whereas everyone else suffered”.

The government’s newly-published 10-year health plan said a new dental contract would be at the heart of a “transformed” NHS system by 2035.

As a result of her chemotherapy for breast cancer, Ms Woodley said her front teeth were chipped and had holes in and she had lost 10 teeth.

The one molar she had left had no chewing surface, she said, meaning she could only eat soft food.

Ms Woodley, from Chippenham in Wiltshire, gave up work 10 years ago because of health issues.

She says her teeth problems have left her in pain and she is unable to pay for private treatment as her condition worsens.

“I’m on benefits, I struggle to survive month on month as it is, without having to find nearly £100 for a check up.

“I’m going to be looking at thousands and I don’t have that money to be able to get my teeth looked after,” she said.

Ms Woodley was registered as an NHS patient at Hathaway Dental Practice in Chippenham before it decided to go private last year, and said she could not find another dentist which would offer her NHS treatment.

Keith Garber, practice director at Hathaway Dental Practice, said the decision to only offer private care to adults was “not easy”, and had been made after a struggle to recruit NHS dentists and “sleepless nights”.

“We lost four NHS dentists within a short space of time who wanted to go to private practices elsewhere,” he said.

“We advertised for eight or nine months to get replacements for NHS dentists and didn’t have a single applicant.”

“It was a case of either doing that [becoming private] or probably going out of business,” he added.

The Department for Health and Social Care said it had rolled out 700,000 urgent and emergency appointments.

It added its reforms would “bring in measures to make sure NHS-trained dentists work in the NHS for a minimum period”.

A government consultation with the public about the planned reforms ends on Tuesday.