Waiting time too long

Briton resorted to pliers and pulled his own tooth

Chris Langston from the English town of Oswestry had been struggling with agonizing toothache for months. He tried to get an appointment with several dentists. But the waiting times at all of them were very long. So the 50-year-old resorted to using pliers himself.

He couldn't afford the costs for private dentists and the emergency clinic is around 100 kilometers away from his home. Langston told the Daily Mail at the weekend that he was unable to travel this distance with his children. He reported pain when swallowing, chewing and even speaking.

Almost fainted during self-operation
When he couldn't take it any longer, the family man grabbed a pair of pliers and went to the bathroom. Langston remembers the painful procedure as soon as he grabbed the molar, which throbbed even more than before. Although the tooth was pulled out quite quickly, he felt "very weak" afterwards and almost fainted.

His children were shocked and he had to drink "strong tea", said Langston, who was able to eat again without pain a week after his self-operation. He still has slight pain, but overall the "amateur dentist" is satisfied with his work. However, he advises against doing something like this again. Because: "It was terrible."

Dentist crisis is getting worse in England
Langston strongly criticized the medical care in his region. It used to be possible to get a dentist appointment quickly. But now this is only possible in the emergency clinic, which is too far away. "I can't afford private doctors," complained the 50-year-old. According to the National Health Service (NHS), the number of panel dentists has fallen from 23,733 to 21,544 in recent years. The dentist crisis is particularly dramatic in Langston's region. There are only 37 dentists per 100,000 inhabitants.