A woman traumatised after losing teeth because she could not get proper care warns "we are going back to the middle ages".
Sara Barton-Wood, 73, of Church Street, Wymondham lost three of her teeth in the last year after her dentist went into private practise – leaving her without adequate care.
Mrs Barton-Wood whose experience left her in a great deal of pain said her situation was avoidable and is fighting to improve dental care across the county.
She said: “This would not have happened if I had had a regular dentist.
“Although I am registered with an NHS practice, I have been passed from one dentist to another over the past six years. I’ve really only had emergency care.
“I have an enormous gap, and it was vile. I am devastated."
'IT IS MEDIEVAL'
Mrs Barton-Wood says the lack of provision is taking the county back to the Middle Ages and has heard horror stories of people having to remove their own teeth.
“I have had a great deal of pain and discomfort, and I must be really careful what and how I eat.
“Teeth are such an important part of my identity. I feel as though my person has been assaulted, like losing a breast.
“I am terribly conscious of my smile, and it has been traumatic to lose so many adult teeth.
“Nevertheless, I know I am relatively lucky and there are some real horror stories out there of people removing their own teeth because they are in so much pain and can't get an appointment.
"We are going back to the Middle Ages. It must be stopped.”
Mrs Barton-Wood emphasised the dentist she uses, Plummers which has branches all over the county, is not at fault, adding “Plummers is actually a first-rate practice”.
She is campaigning to change the way the industry works, proposing newly qualified dentists should be required to serve three to five years in the NHS once they have finished their training rather than take on debt.
She said: “The cost of training currently stands at £300,000 for the seven years that it takes to complete all study and practice to become registered with the general dental council.
"A student typically pays just £50,000 of that.
“This includes five years for the Bachelor of dental surgery, usually carried out at a university or similar institute.
"There is then another two years for the foundation course, which includes one year working in a dental practice under supervision, and another year learning specialisms such as paediatric or community dentistry."
A DENTAL DESERT
Mrs Barton-Wood said she has gained support from South Norfolk MP Ben Goldsborough who is pressing for a dental school to be based at the University of East Anglia.
Ministers have said they are "very close" to giving a direction which could pave the way for the University of East Anglia to start recruiting its first students for its planned school.
Work to build the £3m centre in a new extension of the Edith Cavell Building at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital site is under way, with construction financed half by the UEA and half by Norfolk councils.
But the UEA had been unable to start the process of recruiting the first cohort of students because the government, struggling with extreme pressures on its finances, had yet to instruct the office for students to allocate dental courses for 2026/27.
Norfolk has been dubbed a "dental desert" because people cannot get NHS treatment.
In 2024, research by the House of Commons Library found that 57.3pc of children in Norfolk had not seen an NHS dentist in the past year.
The county was one of 33 local authority areas across the country where more than half of the children had not seen a dentist, with the London borough of Hackney topping the list at 62.2pc.
Share