THOUSANDS of additional urgent dental appointments are available across Hertfordshire and west Essex as part of a drive to improve access to urgent dental treatment for local people.

74 dental practices from every part of Hertfordshire and west Essex are now providing additional urgent appointments during their normal opening hours, providing 10,500 more urgent courses of treatment for local patients.

These additional urgent appointments part of a national NHS scheme to extend dental access for patients needing immediate treatment. They are open to anyone needing urgent treatment for teeth or gum problems whether or they’re registered with that practice.

The extra sessions in local practices are on top of around 11,000 appointments that are available each year through the local NHS urgent dental care pilot service which provides appointments booked directly through NHS111.

The urgent dental care pilot service is provided by dentists in Hemel Hempstead, Watford, and Waltham Abbey during standard opening hours and by the Hertfordshire dental out-of-hours service which runs 6 to 8pm on weekdays and 10am to 6pm on weekends and bank holidays. The Waltham Abbey dentist also provides urgent Saturday appointments.

If you have an urgent dental problem:

• Contact local dentists during weekday daytime hours to see if they can offer you an urgent appointment.
• Contact NHS111 at any time – they will be able to signpost you to dentists providing urgent appointments or book you into an appointment through the urgent dental care service if you need one.

Avni Shah, Director of Primary Care Transformation for Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB said: “Improving access to dental care by providing additional urgent appointments is one of the key national priorities that the NHS has been tasked with delivering. The local NHS is also committed to improvements in this area which we know is a priority for our patients.

“We’re pleased to have already helped thousands of patients who have sought help with severe tooth pain or other urgent dental problems. Helping people to get the help they need in local community services provides quicker, more convenient access to care and relieves the burden on our busy GP practice and hospital emergency departments.

“We’ve had good take-up of the appointments offered so far but we’re also seeing some people not turning up to their booked appointments which means that they and other people are missing out on getting the help they need. If you’re booked into an urgent dental appointment, it’s important that you attend. Even if the pain seems to have gone away, there’s likely to be an underlying problem that needs dealing with.”

Call NHS 111 for urgent dental care if: 

• you have a knocked-out tooth or other injury to your teeth
• you have severe tooth or mouth pain that’s affecting your sleep or daily activities, and is not helped by painkillers like paracetamol or ibuprofen
• you have tooth or mouth pain that is helped by taking painkillers, but it’s not going away
• you have swelling, a lump or patch inside your mouth that’s getting bigger or not going away – it may or may not be painful
• you’ve recently had a tooth removed and you’re bleeding or have severe pain
• you have a broken or loose filling, denture, crown, bridge or veneer.