Dental extraction

An unusually expensive extraction!

Dental extraction has become the cheaper option for many UK citizens unable to obtain NHS treatment despite paying their NHS contributions.

 Private treatment including root fillings and crowns quickly adds up to bills for many hundreds of pounds. It is hardly surprising that extraction, often not the preferred option, is necessitated by cost.

 A report last year claimed that patients were having to pull out their own teeth because NHS dental practices are refusing to register new patients. The figures have prompted concerns of an “emerging crisis” in dental care in England, with the British Dental Association (BDA) accusing the Government of commissioning only enough dentistry to treat about half the adult population.

News broke in 2008 that the Government's contract with NHS dentists, introduced in 2006, had been such a failure that nearly a million fewer patients were visiting the dentist, and the number of crowns, bridges and dentures being fitted had fallen by more than half, while the number of extractions had risen. An estimated 7.4 million people cannot find an NHS dentist to do elementary dental work such as fillings.

Recent findings show that "Tooth decay is the number one reason for child hospital admissions, but communities across England have been "left hamstrung without resources or leadership". There have been calls for a crackdown on unhealthy foods and soft drinks to combat "spiralling cases of tooth decay" with an "urgent need" to introduce measures to curb our sugar addiction which is causing children's teeth to rot.

The food and drinks industry is of course motivated by profit. That sounds familiar. In many areas it is not difficult to find a dentist but it is very difficult if you want NHS treatment.

A debate on children's dental examinations and treatment is due to take place in the House of Lords on January 18. It shouldn't be too difficult for their Lordships to come to a conclusion.

Irresponsibility in 'the most important decision in a generation'.

Photograph: Murdo MacLeod for the Guardian

The first duty of the Government is to afford protection to its citizens.

The political rhetoric is becoming worse by the day. Yasser Arafat is dead. Had he been alive, no doubt his name would have been added to that of Putin and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State, as those being most happy if we were to leave the EU - but it is up to us!

It is our sovereign choice says Cameron while implying that only the stupid could contemplate leaving. So if our "friends" all around the world would like us to stay and the consequences of leaving are so disastrous, why has the Government led its citizens to the position of committing economic suicide?

The first duty of Government is to afford protection to its citizens, something the Government is plainly failing to do if their dire warnings are correct. To hand the fate of the Nation to the 'ignorant' is the height of irresponsibility so could it be that there is more in this for the great and the good, the not so great and the questionable, along with big business whose main aim seems to be to rip off British consumers while paying as little tax as they can get away with?

The Brexit leader, ex-London Mayor Boris Johnson has 'lost it' according to Heseltine, as he accused Boris of "losing his judgement".

That's rich coming from the Mace lifter. 

Postscript [26.05.2016]

After Hestletine cometh Sugar.

I must be honest, I don't like the man. For me he is an overrated chancer, possibly because in my youth, comparatively speaking, I had the misfortune to buy some his Amstrad junk which he later described as "the biggest load of rubbish I've ever seen in my life". His haughty performance on Newsnight [advance to 28 min] last night did nothing to change my mind.

The 'In' campaign becomes more bizarre by the day with more and more dire warnings of the perils of leaving to such an extent that giving people the opportunity to vote is like offering them a revolver.

Please God we can have a more sensible debate in the little time that is left.