A 76-year-woman decided to take her dental care in her own hands after she couldn’t afford a dentist, and it ended up with her taking drastic measures.
After Linda Colla moved from Nottingham to Ottery St Mary in Devon in 2018, she was on the hunt for a new dentist. To her dismay, local practices were not accepting new NHS patients. Private dental work was not an option as she couldn’t afford it, and is surviving on pension credits.
However, she had to find a solution when three of her teeth became loose earlier this year. With no dentist to hand, she ended up extracting two molars and one canine tooth herself in a “very painful” DIY procedure, after pain from the loose teeth was impacting her ability to eat.
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(Image: Linda Colla / SWNS)
She said: “I didn’t have any other option. When I moved down here to the south west, that’s when the problems started. I started looking for an NHS dentist, and couldn’t find one, so I phoned the NHS and they put me on the list.
“I’ve been here since April 2018, and I started looking for a dentist in June or July that year – and I’ve still not got one. Three teeth started to work loose, and it was not very comfortable. It was painful to eat, so I had to pull them out.
(Image: Getty Images)
“They were getting looser and looser, so one at a time, I took them out. It was two back teeth and a canine, and they had quite long roots. It was very painful – but I’ve apparently got a high pain tolerance.”
Linda then had to pay £300 out of pocket for work on her dental plate in order to be able to eat again. She would happily travel over 20 miles to see a dentist, but to no avail.
One day, Linda hopes to find a dentist to maintain her dentures – as she says a new set would cost around £1500 if she saw a private dentist. She is sharing her story to raise awareness of the dental crisis she believes is facing the south-west of England.
She added: “I’ve been round local dentists, who have told me they can only take a certain amount of NHS patients due to funding, and they can’t take any more, The south west is in dire straits.
“The NHS contacted me a couple of times and asked if I still want to be on the waiting list, and I said of course. Six years later, as far as I know, I’m still on it.”