A man has started pulling his own teeth with pliers after failing to get an NHS dentist. George Glinos, 67, keeps all the teeth he has extracted in a jar, reports the Liverpool Echo.
The 67-year-old, from Liverpool, has been carrying out procedures on himself for around four years. He claims he has been forced to do so after being unable to get treatment on the NHS.
George claims to have pulled out of 11 of his own teeth in recent years. The Liverpudlian claims that he rings on the first day of every month to try and get an NHS dentist, however said "nobody is interested" in taking on new patients.
He says he has previously had emergency appointments but they are unable to provide the level of dental care he requires. George claims he has nowhere else to turn as he cannot afford private dental care, so he removes his own teeth as required.
He said: "I haven't had a National Health dentist for probably four, maybe five years, not for the want of trying. Every time I try, nobody is interested in taking new people on. I ring up the first day of every month, usually on all the National Health dentist lists and nobody is interested. Nobody takes your name down or anything.
"In the four years or so where I have not had a dentist, I have had to extract my own teeth. I have a little jar here and there are 11 teeth in it and they are all the teeth I have extracted myself over the four years. I just can't get anyone to look at my teeth."
George says the pain from his teeth is impacting his "whole personal life", physical and mental health. He added: "I have one tooth left on my bottom jaw which I can use to bite things with and basically that is my life now. I have trouble eating, I have trouble digesting food, I get pains in my stomach. I just can't seem to get a dentist anywhere and I certainly don't have the money for private."
George says he regularly takes matters into his own hands when an affected tooth, which has not had treatment, becomes loose. He claimed he sees it as a choice of being in pain or trying to reduce the pain for a period of time.
George said: "When you get a problem with your teeth and you can't get a dentist the problem doesn't go away, so you keep taking painkillers and painkillers and then eventually the tooth becomes that bad it starts becoming loose. That's when I interject and that's when I force the looseness of it to try and get rid of the tooth.
"I have to work at them for a few weeks and then pull the damn thing out with pliers. It's incredibly painful, but what can you do? I have got to the stage now where I'm 11 teeth down that it's just par for the course now, well no-one else is going to do it. I have either got to sit here and stay in pain or try to reduce the time that I am in pain and do it myself."
George believes more support should be in place to save him having to perform these self procedures. He said: "I just think there should be something out there, regardless of how bad the system is.
"There should be something there for people to get their teeth done. How can you have a viable life if you haven't got a good set of teeth? Your smile is how you greet people."
A spokesperson for the NHS in the North West said: “The NHS recently announced the first reforms to dentistry services since 2006 which will support practices to improve access including giving high performing practices the opportunity to increase their activity and treat more patients – discussions around further changes that benefit patients and staff are ongoing.
“The COVID-19 pandemic, which has had a disproportionate impact on the North West region, has inevitably led to a disruption in routine dental care with NHS dentists having to focus on providing care for those with an urgent dental need. It is important to note that anyone who is in dental pain or in urgent need of support, help or advice, can telephone their own dental practice in the usual way.
"If they don’t have a usual dentist and have an urgent need they can contact the dental helpline on 0161 476 9651 (standard local telephone charges apply).”
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