People in urgent need of dental care are resorting to pulling their own teeth out, the patient watchdog has found.
Those who experience a broken tooth, abscess or severe tooth pain should be able to get an urgent dental appointment within 24 hours or seven days, depending on the symptoms.
But research by Healthwatch England revealed people in pain are unable to get an appointment.
People across the country are unable to sign up with an NHS dentist even for routine care, and when they have been taken on as a patient, many wait for months for an appointment.
Instead, many are resorting to self-treatment or unprescribed antibiotics. Others pay hundreds or thousands of pounds for private treatment or travel for an appointment. Some people have described journeys of up to 110 miles or travelling abroad for treatment.
One patient told Healthwatch England: “I had an emergency. There were no options for care. I pulled my own tooth out, got infected, had to get antibiotics from a non-trusted source, as no one was available to get medicine, as A&E won’t see you, doctors can’t, no dentists. I am now thousands in debt due to desperation.”
“I rang up [NHS 111] because I had an abscess. Her suggestion was for me to ring every single dental practice in the county, and over into Newcastle if needed,” another patient said.
In September 2025, 10 per cent fewer adults had seen an NHS dentist in the past 24 months compared to 2019.
As a result, problems are not being prevented or treated early enough, and urgent care becomes the only form of care people can access.
It comes as the government has committed to delivering 700,000 additional urgent appointments per year through to 2028-2029.
The watchdog called for the NHS Business Services Authority to publish monthly progress data on the government’s 700,000 urgent appointment target. It also says the government should introduce a legal right for people to register with an NHS dentist.
However, even after getting an urgent appointment, Healthwatch said patients say their treatment is limited because NHS practices only treat one tooth or problem at a time. Some clinics may only give antibiotics, while others will just do an extraction.
The lack of options leaves patients frustrated, especially as once they have had the urgent care many practices do not have space to follow up on the NHS, the watchdog explained.
Analysis by Healthwatch also revealed there is a widening gap between rich and poorer communities. The number of NHS dental treatments carried out in deprived areas has gone up, but those living in the same areas are also 67 per cent more likely to undergo urgent dental treatment than in the most affluent areas – that’s up from 40 per cent in 2019.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This government inherited an NHS dental system decayed after years of neglect. We are working hard to turn things around, rolling out extra urgent dental appointments and reforming the dental contract to increase capacity and get more NHS dentists on the frontline. There is more to do but this government is determined to fix Britain’s broken dental sector.”