A plumber from South London resorted to yanking out his own teeth as he was unable to access a dentist on the NHS.
Grant Lakey, 58, says he is now in thousands of pounds of debt after being unable to get an appointment anywhere to replace the old teeth, and is having to get treatment in Turkey.
None of Grant's local dental practices were accepting NHS patients, he says, so he has now taken out a £6,000 loan for private treatment.
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The father-of-two lost some of his upper teeth in an accident at work before some of his lower teeth started to come loose, reports the Mirror.
Grant tried all six local dentists near his home in Bromley, south east London, before resorting to foreign medical care.
“I called around all the dental practices in the local area and they weren’t interested," he said.
“It’s terrible when your teeth are all moving around because you are scared to bite anything. It feels like you have a mouth full of marbles.
“It sounds a bit mediaeval but I ended up having to tie string around them and kind of garotted it out.
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“I was in a lot of pain and there was quite a bit of blood. I was just so lucky I didn’t get infected."
The NHS is under immense strain, with waiting times continuing to increase across the board for all types of medical care.
“The only other option was to go private in the UK. I work and I pay my taxes but I couldn’t afford that. I paid my taxes so the NHS should have been there for me,” Grant said.
Grant says he feels a "stigma" due to the state of his teeth and has exhibited feelings of depression.
“The emotional effect and the stress have been awful,” he said.
“I’m a manager at work and have to stand up and talk in front of people. There is a stigma when you have gaps in your teeth.
“People are just thinking ‘look at the state of him’ and they think you’re a crack head.”
Grant now has temporary teeth on his six implants but needs to find another £6,000 to pay to fly back out to Turkey and have proper dentures fitted.
“Now I’ve got to find another six grand and I don’t know where I’ll get that from,” he said.
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