Too many ‘dental’ patients go to A&E says report
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- Published: Friday, 06 January 2017 08:04
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More than 100,000 casualty visits a year are caused by toothache, reports The Times It is costing the NHS millions and clogging up Accident and Emergency departments. Justin Durham, the consultant oral surgeon at Newcastle University who lead the research, said: “It’s quite surprising how many patients we are seeing. They will be in pain and a lot of it.”
Patients suffer lifelong damage as doctors fail to treat tooth problems and accident and emergency departments are congested with people who should be at a dental surgery, the report says. One in 140 A&E visits is for tooth trouble and some people return to hospital dozens of times because the pain refuses to go away. Rising fees and difficulties in getting to see a dentist mean patients are saving money by going to hospital instead, particularly at the weekend, the study suggests.
Justin Durham, the consultant oral surgeon at Newcastle University who was the senior author of the paper, said: “It’s quite surprising how many patients we are seeing. They will be in pain and a lot of it. It’s grossly unpleasant for the individual and it adds to the queue of people in A&E waiting to be seen.” Official figures hugely underestimate the number of patients arriving at casualty units with tooth problems caused by a lack of basic care, Dr Durham said. His study found that seven patients a day visited a Newcastle A&E unit for problems such as toothache, equivalent to 0.7 per cent of all attendances. Twice as many people visited on a Saturday as on a Wednesday, according to the study published in the Journal of Oral Rehabilitation.
Commenting on the findings the British Dental Association (BDA) estimates that, across the country, 135,000 patients go to A&E for tooth problems each year, costing the NHS £18 million. This is ten times the official estimate of 14,400 visits for tooth problems. Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen, chair of the BDA’s General Dental Practice Committee, said: “Ministers keep underestimating how much their indifference to dentistry has knock-on effects across the health service. Government’s only strategy is to ask our patients to pay more in to plug the funding gap.”
Chet Trivedy, a dentist, A&E consultant and trustee of the Oral Health Foundation, said the problem was “massively underestimated” in the NHS. In A&E “you’ve got 24/7 access and it’s free. If you try to get a dentist out of hours it’s a £50 charge. A lot of people are put off,” he said. Dr Trivedy said it was wrong to tell patients to go elsewhere, arguing that basic training for doctors in dealing with pain and replacing teeth that had been knocked out would improve life for patients. “Some people have the view that toothache is very minor but people can be beside themselves with pain,” he said. He warned: “Teeth that are being knocked out are not being put back in. If you’re a ten-year-old that’s a lifelong issue.” People with toothache might be given painkillers, but Dr Trivedy said: “The problem is not solved, the pain comes back and they get into a cycle of going back to A&E.”
An NHS England spokeswoman said: “Figures show access to NHS dentists is in fact improving. Patients who need advice on pain relief can also get help from their local pharmacist. Anyone in need of an NHS dentist should contact their own dental surgery or NHS 111.”
NHS Dental System fails here too.....??
Dear All,Isn't this just a symptom of continual centralised failure, coupled with denial publicly?
[url=]http://www.itv.com/goodmorningbrit ain/investigations/gmb-investigates-diy-dentists
You all know what over 1000 dental colleagues thought in the Telegraph recently:
[url=]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2017/01/02/letters-time-take-nhs-dentistry-hands-inept-politicians/
As a percentage of the population nhs access has changed little and of course it begs the question, access to what?
Current stats show the nhs dental system in England struggles to even make one contact with just over a third of our population every year :oops:
That is the reality, but coupled with all these other 'casualties' like children's hospital admissions and third world charities having to take up the slack for the most BASIC acute needs too!
Staying stuck in public denial is not the way forward, is it?
It is time for Politicians to enthusiasticall y engage :idea:
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