Danielle Watts and Mark Jones, of Toothless in England, visit Abbey Gardens in Bury St Edmunds

A woman who had to pull out 13 of her own teeth joined an NHS dentistry campaign group in a town today to urge people struggling to tell their stories.

Danielle Watts and Mark Jones, from Toothless in England, met up at the Abbey Gardens, in Bury St Edmunds, today to speak with residents.

Mark said Bury was an important destination for the campaign, having hosted its march and rally in October 2021 as well as not having a surgery which accepts NHS patients at present.

Danielle became well-known as a face of the NHS dentistry crisis in this area having been forced to perform ‘DIY dentistry’ and pull out 13 of her own teeth due to chronic mouth infections.

After Danielle’s story became known, a campaign set up by town councillor Katie Parker raised money for her to get some dentures.

She said, while she is doing much better now, she was in hospital for around two and a half weeks at one point and nearly died from the infections.

“I’m hoping other people will come forward and be brave enough to tell their stories,” said the mum-of-two from Bury.

“I have my smile back, but I still don’t have an NHS dentist, and my kids have still not seen a dentist since Toothless in England broke – nothing has changed.”

Danielle said her son, who will be 16 in June, is begging her for braces, but he does not realise the cost involved, and she herself will need to have one of her remaining teeth removed soon.

However, she said she would not pay to see a dentist herself as she would rather her kids were seen to.

“I just want people to be confident and open enough to share their story,” she said.

The campaign aims for Toothless in England include:
- An NHS dentist for everyone
- Radical dental contract reform to encourage and retain dentists in order to provide free NHS services
- Revenue to cover the remaining 50 per cent of the unfunded population
- All dental treatments to be free of charge
- No more privatisation by stealth
- Hygienists, therapists, preventative treatments, routine check-ups to be made core NHS functions

Mark Jones, campaign co-ordinator for Toothless, was due to meet with Stephen Kinnock, Minister of State for Care, on Tuesday to highlight the lack of NHS dentistry provision.

However, the meeting was cancelled at the last minute, which Mark said was ‘incredibly disappointing’ for the campaign. He said people can see the Government telling them the dental crisis is a priority, but cancelling meetings such as the one that was planned cast doubt on that.

Mark, of Felixstowe, said: “We’re almost at a point now in the campaign where where we need to up our voice, to make out voice louder.

“Coming to Bury was an opportunity to speak with local patients and hear their stories, because that is what drives our campaign – it’s patients conducting DIY dentistry, kids who haven’t seen an NHS dentist in 10 years.

“We talk about life expectancy, but what’s really important is healthy life expectancy; we can achieve that very easily by having good oral health and maintaing that.”

Mark was invited to meet the Minister of State by his Suffolk Coastal MP, Jenny Riddell-Carpenter.

He is hoping a meeting with Mr Kinnock can be rescheduled ‘as soon as possible’.