Ex-miner celebrates getting new teeth after living on diet of soup and painkillers
A former miner who was forced to eat a diet of painkillers and soup as he couldn't afford £5,400 for private dental treatment has finally got a new set of teeth.
David Creamer, 63, was left in "agony" while he waited for NHS treatment to fix a set of four crowns that snapped off his top jaw. Despite visiting emergency dental clinics, his GP and contacting numerous surgeries, he could only find a private practice who would do the treatment for £5,400.
He's finally had his teeth extracted and a set of dentures fitted - which has made him feel like a "brand new man."
David Creamer, 63, was left in "agony" while he waited for NHS treatment to fix a set of four crowns that snapped off his top jaw. Despite visiting emergency dental clinics, his GP and contacting numerous surgeries, he could only find a private practice who would do the treatment for £5,400.
He's finally had his teeth extracted and a set of dentures fitted - which has made him feel like a "brand new man."
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NewsTranscript
00:00I'm Mr. David Kramer. I live in Rotherham, Greensborough. I'm 63 years old. I was just eating a simple sandwich and all my top crown came out.
00:12It just came out with the sandwich, which had been in 20 years without any problem. And from then on in, when that dropped out, I tried to see a dentist in Blackpool.
00:25And for the remaining two days we were there, there was absolutely no chance of that. Everywhere was absolutely chock-a-block. It was a walking centre and they got no dentists.
00:34So when I got back to Rotherham, the pain was starting to get bad around other teeth. It seemed to spread like an infection.
00:42I managed to obtain an emergency appointment on a Sunday afternoon and the dentist said, there's quite a few problems there, but I doubt whether you're about to get on the NHS.
00:57So I said, well, I mean, lots of pain through that, but I got in touch with a GP who prescribed some painkillers just to keep me going for the time being.
01:08I paid 40 quid to a private dentist just to take the x-rays and find out how much damage there is or what would need to be done.
01:18But he looked at me and offered me dental treatment the next day to start, but he wanted 6,400 quid.
01:28And he even offered me a loan to pay for the dental treatment if I could make back about £200 a month and I couldn't afford it.
01:39So basically I just made an off-chance message to local MP at Rotherham, Sarah Champion, told her about this and she passed the story on to the Rotherham Advertiser.
01:55It became headline news on that paper and before I knew it, I'd been contacted by other outlets, BBC, ITV, Jeremy Vine, Talk TV.
02:06Back in January this year, I get a phone call from a dentist offering me an appointment.
02:13The remaining teeth that were left and did some fillings and all the remaining teeth which he thought would be perfect to fit dentures around.
02:24And then I started getting pain in the bottom tooth and that wasn't going to be extracted, but he said it was infected.
02:35So I had to take that one out and four more at the bottom and then another one at the top and then do some more work before he could fit the dentures.
02:45But after the fifth and sixth appointments, the top and bottom dentures were fitted.
02:49The top set fits perfect, the bottom set needs some work to do, but life's just turned around completely when it comes to eating.
03:00As it comes to the teeth itself, I'm not that vain. I wasn't too bothered about looking nice, having smiley teeth.
03:09I wanted to eat and get rid of the pain, but now I've got the teeth, it's nice to show them off.