Dentists

When I moved to Crewe, I have to admit, I didn’t immediately search for a new dentist.  My ‘old’ one was very near to my then job, and it wasn’t a priority when I was suddenly thinking about paying bills, coughing up for a tv licence, and the dreaded mortgage.
I bought a property because I thought it would be foolish to pay for rental – now I think my personal finances would be in a better state if I had rented.
But, as always, I digress.
The point I was trying to make was that it wasn’t a priority. Eventually, however, I switched jobs, traveling 40 minutes to a dentist appointment, even if it was only once every six months, seemed daft in the extreme.

So I registered with relative ease, at a dentist in Crewe on Edleston Road. There was no waiting list, no real issue.

But what would I have done if that NHS service wasn’t there?

Today, it was revealed that kids are losing their teeth in North Staffs at a shocking rate.
Five-year-old children in the county have an average of 1.3 decayed teeth compared to an average of one tooth in the West Midlands.
Maybe Staffs youngsters are budding entrepreneus – chomping their way through out-of-date Woolies pick’n'mix at an astounding rate so as to put their personal finances in order by cashing in out the tooth fairy.

One idea is to give kids, or rather their parents, free toothpaste in a “blitz on tooth decay”.

Toothbrushes and toothpaste will arrive in the post.

Meanwhile, a team of dentists has opened a new practice at Moorland Road, Burslem much to the delight of patients I imagine.

But the question remains why is dental health so much worse in Stoke-on-Trent / Staffordshire than it is in other places. And it’s not just dental health, but lung disease, smoking, obesity, on and on, we’re at the top of these health lists for all of the wrong reasons.

Sigh.