Caity Duggan, from Lincoln, has not been able to see an NHS dentist for six years.

After months of calling for an appointment at her practice in Brigg, the 27-year-old was told her dentist had left and she hadn’t been reallocated another.

“They weren’t willing to see me unless I paid to go private,” she said. Unable to afford the cost, Duggan lives with constant pain from her wisdom teeth.

“They’re catching on my gums. They are pushing through, on the inside of my mouth… and it is really sore. I’ve got constant jaw ache.”

She is having to avoid certain foods such as salt and vinegar crisps and is regularly taking pain medication to manage.

Dental deserts are popping up across England as hundreds of practices abandon NHS contracts, which critics say are underfunded, in favour of carrying out more lucrative private care. It has left patients with little choice but to pay for private dentistry, suffer without care or even resort to dangerous DIY measures in extreme cases.

Earlier this year, the British Dental Association (BDA) warned that access is getting “worse” across large swathes of the country, with dentists leaving the NHS in their droves.

At least 600 dental practices in England have stopped providing NHS care since 2017, according to analysis by the Nuffield Trust.

Lincolnshire, where Duggan lives, is one of the worst affected areas with just seven practices offering general NHS dentistry per 100,000 people – below the average of 10 per 100,000 across England, analysis by the health and social care think-tank shows.

New patients also struggle to get appointments, with just 28 per cent able to, compared to the England average of 38 per cent.

Northamptonshire, Bedford, Luton and Milton Keynes, Cambridge and Peterborough were also identified as areas with just seven NHS practices per 100,000 people.

‘No one is taking on new patients’

Duggan, an employee relations adviser, is worried that her dental bill could exceed hundreds because of the extended period she has gone without an appointment – and the ongoing problems with her wisdom teeth.

She has already been quoted hundreds of pounds for a private appointment excluding treatment.

“No one’s taking on new patients because no one has the dentist with any spare spaces,” she said.

“I’m worried when I do get an appointment, they’re going to be a massive list of things that I need doing. I’m going to have to pay for through no fault of my own because I just haven’t been seen.”

Duggan also wonders if “the pain is just going to continue to the point where I get an infection”.

The NHS Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board has identified Lincoln, Boston and Skegness as locations where there is unmet need and oral health is the poorest.

In a bid to help meet the needs of patients in the rural county, the University of Lincoln has launched a campaign to bring the first dental school to the region.

It is hoped that if more students are trained locally, the number of dentists who stay and work in the county will rise.

The campaign has the support of Martin Vickers, MP for Brigg and Immingham, who said it would be “critical” for improving access to NHS dental care in Lincolnshire.

Dr Shiv Pabary, chair of the BDA’s General Dental Practice Committee, said he has seen how dental schools can improve access for locals.

“We’ve got a dental school in Newcastle, so when the students graduate, they tend to stay [in the area],” he said.

However, he added that the Government needs to act with “real urgency” to fix an NHS dental contract that is “not fit for purpose” so newly qualified dentists remain in the NHS.

Dr David Trawford, a dentist at a private practice in Boston, left the NHS 23 years ago because changes to the contract made it “difficult” to provide the desired treatment within its financial framework.

He believes his colleagues are withdrawing from the NHS contract because of funding pressures.

“I do know of a practice in Spalding that used to provide NHS treatment,” he said. “They have now gone private, and it will be in all cases for the same reason.”

Mark Jones, founder of Toothless in England, a grassroots campaign, said the country was in a “dental crisis”, with people pulling out their own teeth and children being admitted into hospital to have extractions.

The i Paper contacted NHS Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board for comment.