A furious former miner says he has been forced to eat a diet of prescription painkillers and soup as he can’t afford £5,400 for private dental treatment.
David Creamer, 62, has been left in “agony” for more than seven months while waiting for NHS treatment to fix a set of four crowns that snapped off his top jaw.
But despite visiting emergency dental clinics, his GP and contacting numerous surgeries, he still hasn't found a practice that will take him on.
David joked how he now wished he'd ‘trained as a dentist’ after recently being given the eye-watering quote for treatment at a private clinic.
And he blames the Conservative government for ‘destroying’ the crucial health service and leaving him in constant pain.
The fed-up former pitman said: “I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.
“I’m absolutely shocked – a country like this. I hear on the news we’re one of the top six richest countries in the world.
“Well, we might be if you’ve got a very, very large bank account and you vote Conservative, that appears to be the gist of things.
“I never used to have a problem before with dentists. I never had a problem all my life until this happened.
“It’s bad enough getting a doctor’s appointment around here – it takes two weeks to get that. As for dentists, I think it’s a dying art.
"It's fine if you’ve got money, if you haven’t, you just won’t see one. It’s definitely a two-tier system. You’re on your own.”
David, who worked for 17 years at Silverwood Colliery, near Ravenfield, South Yorks., said his set of crowns had snapped off his top jaw in Blackpool in June last year.
He had just tucked into a sandwich while on holiday in the seaside destination when he felt a sharp pain in his gums as the four enamel tooth coverings came away.
David had headed to an emergency dentist for vulnerable residents in Blackpool but said that the centre was “chock-a-block full of people” and he couldn’t be seen.
He visited his GP when he returned to his home town of Rotherham, South Yorks.
And he was then prescribed with high strength Co-codamol painkillers, which he now takes every four hours, as well as Naproxen to reduce his swelling.
David also went to a local emergency dentist, who told him he’d need some roots taken out and several of his teeth had shattered - but said they couldn't treat him.
And seven months later, he is still struggling to find an NHS practitioner who will perform the much-needed surgery to put him out of his misery.
He said: “Here we are, end of January nearly, and I’m still here, on these tablets every day, in constant pain.
“I’m living on soup and rice puddings as that’s all I can eat. I can’t chew anything.
“If the pain would go away, I don’t mind walking around looking like a hobbit with no teeth. But it’s the pain – if somebody can just do something about it."
He added: “People are pulling their own teeth out with plyers or whatever.
David Creamer, 62, has been left in “agony” for more than seven months while waiting for NHS treatment to fix a set of four crowns that snapped off his top jaw.
But despite visiting emergency dental clinics, his GP and contacting numerous surgeries, he still hasn't found a practice that will take him on.
David joked how he now wished he'd ‘trained as a dentist’ after recently being given the eye-watering quote for treatment at a private clinic.
And he blames the Conservative government for ‘destroying’ the crucial health service and leaving him in constant pain.
The fed-up former pitman said: “I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.
“I’m absolutely shocked – a country like this. I hear on the news we’re one of the top six richest countries in the world.
“Well, we might be if you’ve got a very, very large bank account and you vote Conservative, that appears to be the gist of things.
“I never used to have a problem before with dentists. I never had a problem all my life until this happened.
“It’s bad enough getting a doctor’s appointment around here – it takes two weeks to get that. As for dentists, I think it’s a dying art.
"It's fine if you’ve got money, if you haven’t, you just won’t see one. It’s definitely a two-tier system. You’re on your own.”
David, who worked for 17 years at Silverwood Colliery, near Ravenfield, South Yorks., said his set of crowns had snapped off his top jaw in Blackpool in June last year.
He had just tucked into a sandwich while on holiday in the seaside destination when he felt a sharp pain in his gums as the four enamel tooth coverings came away.
David had headed to an emergency dentist for vulnerable residents in Blackpool but said that the centre was “chock-a-block full of people” and he couldn’t be seen.
He visited his GP when he returned to his home town of Rotherham, South Yorks.
And he was then prescribed with high strength Co-codamol painkillers, which he now takes every four hours, as well as Naproxen to reduce his swelling.
David also went to a local emergency dentist, who told him he’d need some roots taken out and several of his teeth had shattered - but said they couldn't treat him.
And seven months later, he is still struggling to find an NHS practitioner who will perform the much-needed surgery to put him out of his misery.
He said: “Here we are, end of January nearly, and I’m still here, on these tablets every day, in constant pain.
“I’m living on soup and rice puddings as that’s all I can eat. I can’t chew anything.
“If the pain would go away, I don’t mind walking around looking like a hobbit with no teeth. But it’s the pain – if somebody can just do something about it."
He added: “People are pulling their own teeth out with plyers or whatever.
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FunTranscript
00:00 I'm David Kramer, 62, nearly 63 year old. Unfortunately I had a slight accident in Blackpool
00:07 last June when I was with a girlfriend simply just by eating a sandwich and what happened
00:19 the entire top crown of my mouth virtually, the teeth, came out and I've been trying to
00:26 get some kind of dental treatment ever since. I've seen an emergency dentist in Rotherham
00:33 who said that they're really that bad, most of them are going to have to come out, buy
00:40 a way of taking the roots out etc, we're leaving just a few, but they were taking no NHS patients
00:50 whatsoever, in fact anywhere in Rotherham could I get an NHS. I even tried the Charles
00:57 Clifford Dental Hospital which is well known for helping people that's not got a dentist
01:04 and they said well you need a referral. My answer to that was well I can't get a dentist
01:10 so I can't get a referral. So I paid up front and saw another private dentist, 40 quid,
01:16 who did the full x-ray and again explained that there's a lot of work to do and he's
01:23 prepared to work in advance now but it's 5,500 quid. So at the moment I'm on benefits, ESA
01:30 and the low rate of PIP and there's nowhere on earth I can afford it so basically I look
01:40 like sitting it out while some magic happens, maybe win the lottery and get these teeth
01:47 sorted out. I'm on painkillers every day prescribed by my doctor, three lots of different painkillers
01:56 and the pain can be very, very bad. I'm having to eat soft drinks all the time, can't eat
02:04 a proper meal and I haven't been able to now for nearly seven or eight months. I'm an ex-coal
02:11 miner from Silverwood Colliery Roller Room, was there virtually till it shut in '94 and
02:16 all I'm really asking if there's a dentist out there who's prepared to do a little bit
02:21 of national health dentist treatment to help me out I would be grateful for it because
02:27 I've never known dentistry sink so far down than it has now. Nobody can seem to get a
02:34 dentist, people are pulling their own teeth out with pliers and we're supposed to have
02:40 a caring government that's supposed to be about levelling up. Well maybe somebody from
02:45 the government might come and level up and level out my teeth. Thank you very much.
02:52 (laughs)