Need a dental check-up? You'll have to wait until 2021! Huge backlog of urgent cases will mean patients will not get an appointment until next year, dentists warn

• Clinics will only be able to see a third of their usual level of patients because of strict infection control measures
• Even those with severe toothache will be left waiting up to two months 
• Earlier this week the NHS announced that dentists could reopen Monday, June 8 

Patients will have to wait until next year for a dental check-up because practices face a huge backlog of urgent cases, the dentists’ professional body warns today.

With clinics only able to see a few patients a day, even those with severe toothache will be left waiting up to two months, according to the British Dental Association.

Earlier this week the NHS announced that dentists could reopen on Monday, June 8 – but only if they felt ‘appropriately prepared’ to provide safe care without spreading the virus.

However, the BDA – which represents 22,000 dentists in the UK – estimates that they will only be able to see a third of their usual level of patients because of strict infection control measures.

Before coronavirus, the 10,000 practices in England would typically carry out 3.25million appointments a month, but this is predicted to fall to just above one million a month, and possibly lower.

The BDA also estimates that 6.5million patients have missed out on check-ups and treatment in the two months since surgeries were closed by NHS England on March 25.

Dr Edward Crouch, deputy chairman of the BDA’s board, said: ‘I qualified 36 years ago. I’ve never been more worried about the profession and the care for patients. It’s horrendous. Every day I hear horror stories. Yesterday I found out about a four-year-old girl who’d been admitted to hospital with swelling going into the throat and into the eye as a result of an abscess.

‘The mother had tried desperately to get help and support. It was a potentially life-threatening situation. Other people have taken their own teeth out. Its barbaric stuff.

‘You’ve got people who are in terrible pain. The patients in the most pain we will prioritise and get them seen as quickly as possible but sadly some of them may have to wait three, four, five, six, eight weeks, depending on our capacity.’

He continued: ‘We’ve got two months of patients that haven’t been seen. As a consequence, we will be spending several months clearing the backlog of people who have got pain and problems.

‘If you’ve got absolutely no symptoms, and just want to go to your dentist for reassurance and a check-up or a scale or polish, they are the last services that will be available.’

Dr Crouch said it would be an ‘optimistic guess’ that routine check-ups would restart next January.

The BDA is also aware that some patients have been put on four or five courses of antibiotics because they cannot get proper dental treatment, such as a filling or root canal procedure.

This is likely to encourage antibiotic resistance, which is where bacteria become immune to the drugs and potentially untreatable. Currently, patients can only be seen at one of 500 urgent dental clinics, but services are very restricted and they will usually only treat emergencies such as abscesses or severe infections.

Patients were struggling to be seen by a dentist even before coronavirus took hold.

Dr Crouch, a dentist in Hall Green in Birmingham, explained that when practices reopen they will only be able to see a third of patients compared to normal because many routine procedures generate aerosols, tiny droplets of water, which may contain the virus. This means rooms will have to remain ‘fallow’ for up to an hour afterwards as well as being deep-cleaned. Waiting rooms will be limited to a few patients at a time to ensure adequate social distancing.

An NHS spokesman said: ‘NHS treatment can now begin on a phased basis in June with dentists offering treatment based on what they assess is appropriate in their particular practice – ensuring no dentist will do any treatment they think would put themselves at risk.’

I've suffered six months of agony

Danielle Clarke has been in agony with two infected wisdom teeth since the end of last year, one of the many hit hard by the closure of dental practices.

The 25-year-old, pictured, was referred by her dentist to a hospital for a consultation in April but her appointment was pushed back to July due to the pandemic.

She was given four courses of antibiotics but the pain was so intense she found it difficult to eat and has lost three stone in six months.

Yesterday, she visited a private walk-in clinic and paid £550 to have one tooth extracted. She has to make an appointment to remove the other but said she is ‘incredibly relieved’ and will pay whatever it takes to end the pain.

Miss Clarke, a tattooist who lives in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, added: ‘I’m feeling more relief now knowing I can get them taken out after waiting so long.

‘It’s been horrendous. It’s affected my eating and how I feel. I’m now very prone to getting any kind of cold since I constantly get infections.’