NHS Dentist- 2007- Health Decay in the UK

NHS Dentistry- 2007- Health Decay in the UK
It shouldn’t be like this- Patients endure pain & have to resort to treating themselves. Try getting proper access with the language barrier. Try having an ‘invisible disability’.

I know I should feel very lucky that I, unlike many others, actually do have a dentist. I’ve been with this one (thanks to a social worker friend) for about 18months. One of the imported ones. Fine if you are healthy & never have to try and make yourself understood. A broken tooth is visible…an underlying health condition or an ‘historic’ problem is another issue entirely.

The plus….well it’s the first time a dentist has bothered to shake my hand. Nice. Aside from the fact I was then punched in the face three times because of faulty equipment-the gun thing that squeezes the plastic filler-it kept collapsing & the nurse urged him to stop but he carried on twice more slamming his fist against my top lip each time.

The minus…..the language barrier is a nightmare. How do you explain in words with the complexities of English “ I have ME/CFS …….it is advised that I should NOT have local anaesthetic with added adrenaline (apparently some of us collapse & die)”

Well, you try, but sitting in the waiting room for a check up not knowing if you’ll need a filling….you sit there shaking, feeling sick, I’m not afraid of dentists but when I have to face the stark choice….get drilled with NO PAIN RELIEF WHATSOEVER…..or play Russian roulette it’s stressful. No- it’s terrifying. It is possible, but you have to be in the right frame of mind. There’s no advocate there to sit in and look after me. You fill out the bloody questionnaire in detail yet after something like four appointments, yet again I stressed I have ME/CFS……..getting here is exhausting, the slightest abrasion in my mouth and my glands come up. etc etc “ oh I didn’t know” he says. I’m not quite sure what he suddenly understood, because you cannot have a flowing conversation. Yet every visit….two check ups and two broken tooth repairs- I always remind them.

The Government, supposedly said from 2006, only white fillings will be used. No amalgam. I asked in advance, summer 2005….the nurse(she’s gone now) said ”we haven’t been told.” Understandably I was very keen to insist if I needed a filling before then, that instead I’d try and wait until it came in. I don’t need any more mercury in my body.

It’s that time again-the dreaded routine 6mth check up……yet this time just as I had to do with my optician last year(Specsavers rush you & frankly have no Disability Discrimination awareness, let alone data protection awareness-but they are another story for another day), I have felt it necessary to write in advance, prior to my appointment, in the hope that someone, will listen to my concerns, so I feel understood and can access proper treatment.

A month ago, a wisdom tooth started coming through some more, but in the process the surrounding gums became, unbelievably inflamed and sore. Painkillers wouldn’t touch the pain. Nothing would relieve it enough to get any sleep for several days. I could neither open nor close my mouth more than 1cm.

After four days, maximum dose of paracetamol,(2 every 4hrs max 8 in 24hrs) would just give, after about an hour a slight reduction in pain enough to get a short period of sleep. Then I realised massaging along the gums firmly released firstly pus then small clots of blood. But it started to give some relief and I figured better out than in. Well this twice daily routine I have continued, and it is still producing some blood but it feels as if it is keeping it more clear than if I let it pool.

So it’s almost a month later from the original agony, and the major soreness has gone BUT I know from the weird taste & smell that it is still infected. I know I need antibiotics to help my body fight it off. I don’t know if like our Police Community Support Officers who can’t arrest anyone, these imported dentists can do the whole job or just part of the job……imported doctors and nurses often have restrictions-and rightly so- but where the hell does that leave me ? There’s never anyone to protect us. There are never any leaflets telling me my rights, telling who to complain to or get reassurance from. To tell me what the protocol is in varied situations.

I know that I cannot in the short time available, even without the language barrier (technical language accomplishment does not translate to understanding the nuances of the history a patient is trying to impart)be sure I have been understood. The absence of a reflective reply, leaves you unsure how much if ANY of what you have said has been received and understood. It is added stress I don’t need.

I’ve resorted to writing the history, and posting it ahead of my appointment…….in the hope that someone who can fully understand what I’ve written and who can write a prescription will make sure the dentist who sees me will be fully informed on all issues. I shouldn’t have to do this in order to get treatment.

I suspect I’ll find nothing has been done……despite the fact I’ve put the onus on the receptionist to make sure the letter reaches a senior dentist(or at least that the person I’m seeing has sufficient time to fully grasp what I’m saying)
prior to my appointment.

I may find by the end of the week I’ve been struck off the list ! If that is the case I WILL USE THE DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION ACT.

You know what, I’m just starting to think that perhaps the DDA means just that ?....oh what an idiot I am……it means they can/and are encouraged to discriminate against us. Oh well that explains it.

I am sick of having to fight at every step for the basic equal access to services. Now we know why ……..