Due to the high price of dental treatment in UK many patients are choosing to avoid regular payments in an effort to save money; unfortunately, this has meant that the number of people visiting A&E with dental problems has quadrupled in the last 2-3 years. Over 2010 to 2011 just 3,205 went to casualty with tooth pain but between 2012 and 2013 that soared to 14,526.
Unison’s head of health Christina McAnea said that many families had to cut back on their outgoings and dental appointments were one of the things to go during times of soaring bills. She told The Mirror ‘Things are bad when people neglect oral health for money reasons. This is the early sign of a major problem.’
Although dental treatment comes under the NHS it does have to be paid for at the point of service and it can cost several hundred pounds if a lot of work needs to be done. The British Dental Association warned that the practice of avoiding treatment in the short-term to save money would lead to long-term problem with dental health and Labour’s Andrew Gwynne suggested that registration was the answer, saying ‘To ease this pressure on hospitals, the Government must help patients to register with NHS dentists.’