How can anyone with a serious dental problem get treatment?

a lad i know is eating painkillers, and i've tried to get help for him.his pain is awesome. no one will see him . one dentist told me they will see him in october. another one said we dont do emergencies. i was given an emergency phone no. it was closed. what else can i do?

How can anyone with a serious dental problem get treatment?
When I was a kid in London soon after the war my parents always took me to the Dental Surgery department at my local hospital.





Nowadays, with all the "improvements" we've had in the Health Service that option isn't available.





I don't know where you live but there are usually some dentists offering emergency treatment even though you will probably be seen privately. Your doctor's surgery may be able to help with contact numbers, failing that you could try the hospital and if that fails phone your local Health Service office.





Another possibility is to try contacting dentists in other areas providing you have some means of getting there.





I had the same trouble myself a year or so ago, I wasn't registered with a dentist but fortunately my wife was and she organised an appointment at the surgery she went to.





Sorry, but dental provision in this country at the moment is very patchy and varies from reasonable to non-existent depending upon where you live.
Reply:your local hospital will have some emergency dentist numbers to call - good luck, there is nothing worse than tooth ache...!
Reply:Call NHS direct. 0845 4647. They will give you the out of hours emergency dentist number. If you cant get through, call the emergency doctor.
Reply:If you need to do something straight away, call NHS direct; they can at least give you a local number for an emergency dentist. I'm taking it that private treatment isn't an option, because if it were, I'm sure you could get him in somewhere tomorrow. Otherwise, if you can't find an NHS dentist that will help him, either go to a doctor or go to A%26amp;E; either should be able to help him with something. Tell him to go easy on the painkillers though. Ibuprofen is the best thing he can take.
Reply:is there no dental hospital nearby u can take him to? if not keep trying other dentists some will see him same day but will charge a fee for it on top of what his treatment costs but its worth it to stop the pain.
Reply:Your friend has my deepest sympathy. My eldest son has been going crazy with toothache for a month and been unable to get any help. We sat and went through the local phone book one day and no dentist was taking NHS patients on. In the end we rang the NHS direct line and they told him to go to our local A %26amp; E for emergency treatment, then, luckily for us we managed to get a community dentist to see him. I didn't know about these community dentists, most clinics have them and your local GP should be able to put you on to them. Hope your friend feels better soon.
Reply:i no exactly how it feels ive been trying for 3 and half years to get a dentist and im still looking tell him 2 strong painkillers and also try rubbing toothpaste wherever the pain is coming from it normally does the trick till the painkillers kick in
Reply:story of my life...Phone NHS Direct or pay Private.
Reply:try calling nhs direct they should be able to tell u where your local emergency dentist is. with our local one here u have to call in the morning and they ring u back with an appointment time. its not a 24 hour service so try ringing that number again from 8am onwards tomorrow to see if u get someone. good luck
Reply:Oil of cloves helps





NHS dentists find treating people with serious problems uneconomic owing to funding issues.
Reply:Is there a NHS dental access centre near to him? I used one and the care they gave me was fantastic. I had such a bad problem that I required the rest of my teeth to be removed, and they even arranged for me to have it done in hospital under a general anaesthetic as I'm just SO scared of injections and things in my mouth.





They can really help. Tell this lad to ask at his gp surgery if there is one near him.
Reply:I've had toothache for ages but the other day it got so bad that I couldn't sleep. so i forked out 40quid just for a appointment. turns out I have an abcess. I would have quite happily paid whatever money to make the pain stop, just go private I say
Reply:phone around dentists some do emergencies,,,I paid,,£50,for one extraction,,,