Cumbria Announces 17,000 New NHS Dental Places

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It’s cruelly ironic that, as the awareness of the importance of good dental health has grown, and as more and more people have decided to strive for the smile they’ve always wanted, many patients have found it increasingly difficult to find a place with an NHS dentist. Thanks to targeted funding, however, some parts of the UK have started to find a way round this problem.

A £1.5 million funding boost recently given to the Cumbrian health authority has been spent on creating an extra 17,000 dental places for people in the area who have been on the waiting list, sometimes for long periods of time. These people have been invited to apply to one of the surgeries in the area that now have spaces and ask to be taken on as a patient. Ensuring that people have access to dental care and visit their dentists regularly is about more than merely looking after their teeth. Whilst this is the primary aim of a dentist, of course, good dental health is also a vital part of good overall health, and there are specific illnesses and conditions which are often first spotted during a routine visit for a dental check-up.

As technology advances and new treatments and techniques are devised, the nature of a visit to an orthodontist has changed. In the past, most people only saw their dentist for a six monthly check up or if an emergency situation had developed. Usually tis mean a tooth which had become damaged in an accident, or a case of tooth ache, brought about by decay and causing severe pain. Now, however, a dental clinic is more likely to resemble an upmarket health farm than an emergency medical centre, and the range of treatments offered will be aimed less at pain relief and more at transforming the smile of every patient.

If you feel insecure about the state of your teeth it can impact upon virtually every personal interaction you experience on a daily basis. Worrying about the impression which grey, chipped, damaged or crooked teeth are creating will stop you feeling fully able to relax. Rather than concentrating on the person you’re talking to and the topic at hand, you’ll be listening to the nagging voice in your head telling you that they’re staring at your teeth and making all kinds of judgements.

The good news is that, no matter what the nature of the particular issues which are troubling you, your clinic will have the treatments to deal with it. If a single tooth is troubling you, for example, then ask about dental implants in London, and have your dentist explain exactly what the process involves. This doesn’t just apply to implants, of course. If you feel your teeth have become dull and grey then you can look into teeth whitening in London, whereas teeth which are crooked or overcrowded can be dealt with using orthodontic braces in London, or indeed wherever in the country you happen to be.

In all of these cases, your orthodontist will be happy to examine your teeth, decide on a course of action, and then discuss it with you at length, making sure you know exactly what’s going to happen, what the results should be and how much it will cost. If you worry about wearing metal braces, for example, your dentist may well point you in the direction of ‘invisible braces’, transparent plastic retainers which shift the position of your teeth without anyone but you ever knowing you’re wearing them.

Whether you just want to keep your teeth as healthy as possible, or long to completely makeover your smile, making sure you visit the dentist regularly is vitally important. They’ll work in partnership with you, offering advice and treatment aimed at achieving the results you’ve both agreed to aim for.