Free clinic in Haverhill and Sudbury for those without NHS dentist

The emergency clinic will be for Sudbury and Haverhill this week to help residents who are not registered with a dentist and are suffering with toothache.

The clinic will be held by Dentaid, a charity that provides free dental care for homeless and vulnerable people. 

Suffolk County Councillor for Sudbury, Jessie Carter, was one of the councillors who helped organise for the charity to visit the town, contributing towards the costs and organising a grant from the town council.

The Green Party councillor said she was contacted by many people who said they couldn't get taken on by a dentist in the area, and have had to travel out of East Anglia - to areas as far as London - only to be put on a waiting list.

"There are children with broken teeth," she said.

"People have had to hop between pharmacies because they have been asking for pain killers too many times. People are at their wit's end.

"For many people moving into the area, whether are private or NHS, there are no spaces.

"For those that cannot afford private dentistry, or cannot find a dentist, they are left with the cruel reality of having to live every day in pain, as doctors are not even seeing patients for teeth pain.

"It's a horrible situation that we are in. It's great that the charity are coming but horrible that they have to come down at all.

"If it proves to be as popular as we expect it to be, I wouldn’t hesitate to ask them back later in the year. People are going through so much hardship at the moment with the cost of living."

The clinic will be held in Haverhill outside St Mary's Church on Thursday, February 2, and in Sudbury on Friday, February 3, from 10am to 4pm, at St Gregory’s Church.

To qualify for dental care at the clinic, you must live in the area, be in pain, and not be registered at a dentist.

There is no need to book. The advice is to get there as early as possible, and expect to wait, and there is no guarantee that everyone can be seen.

Steve Marsling and Mark Jones, co-coordinators of Toothless in Suffolk, in Leiston during Dentaid's visit to the town

The East Anglian Daily Times reported in October that Suffolk has one of the lowest NHS dentist numbers in the country. 

The Mid Suffolk area had 0.067 dentists per 1,000 people, according to the figures from the Local Government Assocation (LGA).

This placed the area fourth lowest among similar districts and only marginally better than Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, which had the lowest proportion with 0.062 dentists.

The visit will be Dentaid's fifth visit to Suffolk, and their first time in Sudbury.

"We are looking forward to returning to Suffolk and helping people in the Haverhill and Sudbury communities out of dental pain,” said Dentaid CEO Andy Evans.

"Previous experience shows us there is huge demand for our charitable dental services and we expect there to be long queues this time too.

"We do ask people to remember these are volunteers who are giving up their time to try to help those in greatest need.

"We know there are people in the Suffolk community who are suffering from untreated toothache and thanks to our volunteers and the support of the local councils, Dentaid will help as many people as we can."