Woman living in "dental desert" considers pulling tooth out with pliers
Vanessa has been living with agonising pain for a month but cannot afford private care
A woman from Norfolk has considered pulling her infected tooth out with pliers as she struggles to find affordable treatment.
Vanessa has been living with agonising pain for a month but cannot afford private care.
"It's awful - I'd rather go through labour again," Vanessa told Greatest Hits Radio.
"I can't eat, if I have something hot to drink I get searing pain, it keeps me awake.
"I've got a child to support and can't afford private so going to have to suffer in pain.
"I was tempted to pull it out myself, the pain was that bad. I was going to get a pair of pliers and pull it out."
The British Dental Association claim around 13 million people in England are without access to treatment, or 1 in 4 adults.
The union say NHS services have been in decline for a decade and urgent funding is needed to keep it afloat.
"Something has to be done," Vanessa said.
"I start ringing every day from about 9am in the morning to 6pm in the evening, ringing dentists.
"I rang 111 twenty-six times over a week - this is unfair on people.
"I've gone through three boxes of strong pain killers in three weeks.
"I've had to go back to just paracetamol because if I keep taking them I'll become addicted to codeine," she added.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said:
“This government is committed to rebuilding dentistry, but it will take time.
“We are starting with an extra 700,000 urgent dentistry appointments to help those who need it most and will reform the dental contract to encourage more dentists to offer NHS services to patients.
“We will also introduce supervised tooth brushing for three-to-five year-olds in the most deprived communities.”