‘My son, 7, had six enamel eliminated after inhumane look forward to therapy’

EXCLUSIVE: Children under 18, or under 19 and in full-time-education, can get free NHS dental appointments and treatment but there is a shortage of NHS practices

View 2 Images

A mum whose seven-year-old autistic son had six teeth removed due to a dental abscess has said it was “inhumane” he had to suffer a four-month wait in intense pain.

Hayley Bramhall, from Macclesfield, said it was “devastating” to see her son Philip in agony. During the wait for “urgent” treatment, his abscess grew leading to the need for him to have teeth taken out.

She said her non-verbal son has been holding his mouth and avoiding toothbrushing in a particular area since his surgery in July and she fears they might have to face another long and painful battle if he has another dental problem.

Speaking about him having six teeth removed, Hayley said: “Eating’s become more challenging because of that. He’s a lot more irate and upset. As a family and for me, it’s traumatic. It’s frustrating. It makes you feel angry – angry at the lack of services.

“Frustrated at the fact that, for example, now I need to start the process again because I think he’s got toothache. Although I don’t know whether it’s because he was in pain for four months, which is just inhumane in itself.”

Hayley has launched a petition on the Parliament website calling for a maximum 12-week wait for children with special educational needs requiring urgent dental care under sedation or general anaesthetic.

She said her son needs sedation and general anaesthetic just for check up, which can mean long waits that result in the problem getting worse.

“I think the pressure and the wait just for that is exceptional, never mind the wait for someone in extreme pain,” she said. “It’s devastating as a parent seeing him in pain all the time.”

Nearly 10,000 children admitted to hospital for rotting teeth last year, grim study shows

Nearly 10,000 children were admitted to hospital for rotting teeth last year, damning figures show.

In 2025, 8,930 under 18s were admitted for tooth decay, slightly up from 8,925 the year before, analysis by the Liberal Democrats shows.

Children under 18, or under 19 and in full-time-education, can get free NHS dental appointments and treatment but there is a shortage of NHS practices. Around 14 million people – or well over one in four of England’s adult population – were unable to access NHS dental care in 2025.

The study found 470 dental practices have pulled out of the NHS and handed back their contracts since 2020 as ‘dental deserts’ spread across the country.

The research also found particular damage in rural areas, with higher numbers of dentists approaching retirement and a higher proportion leaving the profession.

Elsewhere, researchers found local Education Authorities have shelled out over £2.5million for school-aged pupils since 2020, including on toothbrush kits and on public health initiatives.

Tooth decay remains the number one reason for hospital admissions among young children. The British Dental Association says some kids are waiting years to have teeth extracted because the surgery is competing with other operations on the NHS waiting list for operating theatre time.

Children usually require going under general anaesthetic for tooth extractions so this has to be done in hospital.

Lib Dem primary care spokeswoman Helen Maguire said: “Thousands of young children are being forced into hospital beds just to have their rotting teeth pulled out, millions are trapped in expanding ‘dental deserts’ unable to get an appointment, and local councils are being forced to shell out millions to patch up a broken system.”

The Liberal Democrats have demanded a £750million Dental Rescue Package to revive access to local NHS appointments and guarantee regular checkups for children. It is also calling for emergency dental A&Es in every community across the country that provide walk-in urgent care seven days a week to ensure that nobody is left in agony.

The British Dental Association welcomed the commitment to new money and criticised a lack of new investment from the Labour Government. The Mirror has launched the Dentists for All campaign with the BDA calling for a return to universal access to NHS dentistry for everyone who needs it.

Eddie Crouch, BDA chair, said: “When millions of people have no options, it’s refreshing to see serious proposals to invest in expanding access to NHS dental care. The real threat to NHS dentistry has always been a poverty of ambition. Rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic won’t help.”

More than 40,000 people have signed a petition launched by 38 Degrees calling on Andy Burnham to make NHS Dentistry a priority, amid a crisis of people being forced to carry out DIY Dentistry and pull out their own teeth.

Veronica Hawking, Campaigns Director at 38 Degrees, said: “Nobody in modern Britain should be pulling out their own teeth because they can’t get an NHS dentist.

“The Government has the public firmly on side – now it needs to properly fund NHS dentistry, so no one else is forced to take matters into their own hands.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This government is fixing NHS dentistry after a decade of decline. We have improved access to urgent dental treatment by prioritising patients with the greatest need, and millions of additional courses of treatment have been delivered, including a significant amount for children.

“But there is still more to do – especially to increase the dentistry workforce – and that is why we’re rolling out more dentistry school training places in areas which need them, and cutting red tape to allow qualified dentists to practise.”