One woman in her 30s, Boyka, told the researchers: “We don’t have a dentist. It’s crazy. For us, it’s, like, impossible! In Ukraine the dentist industry is huge, you know, everywhere, and because it’s everywhere you just go and it’s like £10, £8, and you can clean it, whiten it like [a] Hollywood smile!
Some British families who have taken in Ukrainian refugees have noted that their guests organise dental appointments during their visits home.
Oh, this explains the “British teeth” phenomenon. (Most?) Everywhere else in Europe affordable and fast dental care is a given
The traditional “british teeth” was the UK’s dental industry focussing on healthy rather than pretty.
Nowadays, it’s caused by underfunded patient slots at dentists.
You can find a private dentist pretty easily, but it’s quite hard to get taken on as an NHS patient (which means when you need treatment for something, you’re not in the capped NHS bands). Which is especially bad if you’re eligible for completely free treatment, as you’re blocked by available dentists.
The dentists are generally given funding (or access to funding) for a set amount of NHS patients to make up the difference between NHS capped costs and their true costs. And unfortunately, there often aren’t enough slots.
I was lucky with my current dentist that they happened to have slots when I signed up. And a few years later, they let me know when slots were opening so I could add the rest of the household.
I have some dental trauma and that combined with autism meant I was able to push to go to the community special access dentist (or whatever it’s called), but I had to really push for that. I wouldn’t have been able to find a dentist otherwise
Teeth are a luxury bone, you don’t need them to work.
In the future all foods are in the form of a paste.
An iv you only get access to at work facilities to avoid too much time off and so you don’t need to stop working for sustenance
The UK having such horrendous teeth is a myth
source
I mean…comparing with the US is not even fair. They don’t even have socialized healthcare, never mind dental care.
I mean when it’s mostly American’s who perpetuate the myth it is.
Okay yeah. But it is definitely non trivial getting care here, having lived in both countries.
I mean it doesn’t well it didn’t anyway until about a decade ago. You used to be able to get a dentist easily enough then austerity happened and look at us now! World leaders in shooting ourselves in the foot.
The British smile is really only a thing because teeth straightening and whitening aren’t usually covered by the NHS and nobody cared enough to go private, everyone else has a crooked smile anyway. Your more likely to get bullied for braces than having a tooth out of place.