A man has claimed he pulled out one of his own teeth after waiting more than 18 months to find an NHS dentist The 62-year-old is one of 48,000 people on a waiting list for a dentist in Devon and Cornwall

A man said he was so desperate to have his tooth removed, he resorted to pulling it out with pliers.

Engineer David Woodhouse decided to remove the tooth after he couldn’t find a dentist. He says he waited for 18 months but couldn’t find a dentist willing to remove it in his hometown of Ventongimps, Truro.

48,000 people on a waiting list

Mr Woodhouse resorted to drastic measures to stop the tooth pain after finding out he had been removed from his local practice’s patient list because he had been working abroad.

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“I had a loose one and it was causing me a little bit of pain, so I got the needle-nose pliers and out it came,” the 62-year-old told BBC News.

He is one of 48,000 people on a waiting list for a dentist in Devon and Cornwall.

A shortage of dentists across the country has meant some patients wait three years to be seen by a specialist.

Mr Woodhouse added he is “not looking forward to the next tooth coming loose.”

He told BBC News: “I may have to consider a bank loan to go private, but why should I?”

“I feel so embarrassed as well, it would be nice to eat an apple or a steak again one day.”

Dentistry’s recruitment crisis

One of the UK’s largest dentistry providers has said that it cannot support the number of patients needing a dentist.

And one in six homeless people have resorted to pulling their own teeth out because they cannot find a dentist willing to take them on.

“We support over 4m patients each year with the full range of dental treatments and continue to do so across our practices,” Tom Riall, who runs NHS-funded service Mydentist, told The Daily Mail.

“In a small number of areas however we, like many other dental practices, are struggling to recruit enough dentists.

“We are doing everything we can to minimise the impact of this and to continue providing high-quality, timely care to all of our patients.

“Last year, 68% of the UK’s dental practices that tried to recruit struggled to do so, and this problem is only going to get worse unless this issue is addressed,” he added.

Almost a third of dentists from Europe are considering leaving the UK after Brexit.

More than eight in 10 of those intending to leave blame uncertainty over Brexit arrangements as a significant factor, according to research carried out by the General Dental Council (GDC).

“The government has failed to even acknowledge the scale of the crisis that’s been facing dentistry for several years,” the chair of the British Dental Association Mick Armstrong told trade publication dentistry.co.uk.

“Broken NHS contracts, rock bottom morale and now Brexit are all taking their toll,” he said.

“The writing is now on the wall for too many European and UK qualified dentists. The government needs to wake up and smell the coffee.”

He added: “The NHS dentistry can’t be run without dentists.”

A spokesperson for NHS England South West said: “If a patient has their own dentist, they should contact them for an emergency appointment.

“If a patient isn’t registered with a dentist and needs an emergency appointment or it’s an out of hours emergency, there is an emergency number for Cornwall –0333 405 0290. Patients will be seen by an emergency dentist within 24 hours if they are suffering from trauma, bleeding and pain.

“Patients can also contact NHS111 for advice.”