Southwold man gets dentist appointment after 13 years

Posted:
7:30 a.m. on November 25, 2021

Update:
08:37 November 25, 2021

A Suffolk man who has spent more than a decade trying to see a dentist without success is relieved to finally have an appointment early next year.

Jeremy Burchell was struck off his dentist list in 2008 when dental appointments conflicted with hospital appointments and has “tried to get a dentist ever since.”

Now, 13 years later and with several fewer teeth than before, Jeremy of Walberswick plans to have dentures in January.

In 2008, he had several doctor visits and was diagnosed with diverticulitis.

Although he telephoned to inform his dentist that he would not be present due to the appointments, when he tried to change appointments, he discovered that he had been struck off the list due to the absence of two meetings in a row.

Jeremy said: “It has left me without a dentist from 2008 until now.

“I only have one front tooth left and a lot more are gone, the bottom row doesn’t look so bad.

“I’m just glad we wear masks when we go out or else I’ll scare the kids.”

His teeth were fine before and thinks none of this would have happened if it hadn’t been for his original dentist to let go.

He asked for dentists across the county, but said the only answer he gets is “I’m sorry, we’re full”

He added: “It has nothing to do with the fact that I am not trying to get a dentist, far from it. I have been trying to get a dentist since then.”

During his search for a new dentist, Jeremy says he knocked out a lot of teeth: “I’ve swallowed them before, in fact I was in such a state at one point that I had to go. in the shed and take a pair of pliers and the tooth myself.

“The only pleasure I got from it was going inside and puffing my mouth with a tall whiskey.

“I’ve always taken care of my choppers, or I could say chopper now. I can laugh about it now to some extent because I know I have a dentist now, but the last thing I wanted was dentures. “

Dentistry in Suffolk

There has been a reported shortage of dentists in Suffolk, with vacancies unfilled for more than two years in Suffolk.

More than 200 people took part in a protest in Bury St Edmunds in October against lingering concerns over dental care in Suffolk.

East Suffolk Council has also written to the Department of Health and Welfare expressing the district’s concerns about dentistry.

While Dr Ed Garratt, of the Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care System (ICS), said he was “quite ashamed” of the provision of dental care.