Life Without Dentists, Then and Now
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- Published: Friday, 10 February 2023 09:39
- Written by Peter Ingle
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As more and more of the population adapt to life without NHS dentistry, some recent news items have shown how treatment was provided in the past, as well as some current alternatives. The recipients include a 17th century French noblewoman, a retired roofer and a Bridlington resident with a broken tooth.
The body of Anne d’Alegre, who died in 1619, was discovered during an archaeological excavation in north western France in 1988. She had been embalmed in a lead coffin, and her skeleton, and teeth, were remarkably well preserved. The archaeologists noticed that she had a dental prosthesis but at that time further non-destructive investigation was not possible.
As reported in a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, D’Alegre has now had a Cone Beam scan, and this has shown that gold wire was used to hold together and tighten several of her teeth. She also had an artificial tooth made of ivory from an elephant.
But the dental work only “made the situation worse”, according to Rozenn Colleter, an archaeologist at the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research and lead author of the study. The gold wires would have needed repeated tightening over the years, further destabilising the neighbouring teeth. D’Alegre likely went through the pain for more than just medical reasons. There was huge pressure on aristocratic women at a time when appearance was seen as related to value and rank in society. According to Colleter, Ambroise Pare, a contemporary of D’Alegre’s who was the doctor for several French kings and designed similar dental prosthetics, claimed that “if a patient is toothless, his speech becomes depraved.”
Antony Watson from Yorkshire has been featured in the in the Mirror, the Mail and BBC News. A tooth crowned 20 years ago had broken “again” when he had bitten into a cookie, he said. He "definitely couldn’t afford" to pay for private treatment "on the spot", forcing him to look elsewhere for a solution.
Where he lives, two dental practices have shut down in the past three months, leaving Bridlington with only one NHS practice – which is not taking on new NHS patients. Mr Watson said he had done a search on the internet and there were a range of home dentistry kits on offer. "I picked the best one for me, which was probably one of the cheapest but also one of the easiest ones to do, and I thought yup, next day delivery, I’ll have that."
Explaining the steps he took, Mr Watson said: "You boil a kettle, you put the beads into the water. The beads then go together and go real soft and clear. You then shape it around your tooth and let it cool down.”
Mr Watson said he used super glue to secure it in place.
Despite accidentally gluing a finger, Mr Watson - who said he had fallen off the books of an NHS dentist several years ago after missing "a couple of appointments" - insisted he would not hesitate to repeat the process.
Meanwhile, retired roofer Alex Gray told reporters how he had resorted to pulling out six of his own teeth, using pliers and painkillers. He explained his technique, as well as his expectations of his teeth. "Teeth don’t last forever," said Mr Gray. "I can’t be the only one who has to take out their own teeth but what else can I do?"
He explained that when a tooth "starts to fall out" he takes painkillers and "waits until it goes numb", before using pliers to extract it.
He told the BBC he had been unable to find an NHS dentist after moving to Lincolnshire six years ago.
The Mail also provided maps of the UK highlighting the areas with least dentists and included a warning about the hazards of DIY dentistry. All three features ended with the same quotes from a Department of Heath spokesperson. This included the cheerful statistic that over 75% of patients who tried to get a dental appointment in the last two years were successful, and the questionable claim that “The number of dentists practicing in the NHS increased by over 500 last year.”
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