Neil’s story

I lost a crown about seven months ago and it left a big crater in my tooth that was uncomfortable, it was causing me to fiddle with it from my tongue and it was starting to get painful, I was getting infections and just generally pushing me down, it constantly filled up with food and you’d have to make sure you brushed like crazy to get it out.

It’s just hard to find a dentist in today’s climate for everybody. But if you’re unhomed, it’s even worse. Where do you put down as your address? What’s your catchment area? How do you make anything work? So it’s really useful to have a service like this.

I try to keep myself clean and tidy, and I’ve been lucky I’ve been in the emergency accommodation on my own for whilst in January, but for people who are sleeping, the access to any NHS service is difficult. I’ve been really lucky, my GP has kept me on the roll, even though I’ve been bouncing around. But there’s no way I could get to an NHS dentist. And I think there are boundaries for people that sleep rough.

I spent several months sofa surfing before I actually ended up having to stay outside. So there’s a lot of what I would call invisible homeless, people that are that don’t have a door key that rely on friends and it’s particularly bad for young adults and for women, but for men in their 60s like I am it’s more than you can cope with sometimes.

A lot of people do turn to drink and drugs but an awful lot of people don’t, they just need to have a place, a roof, and having access to medical services like this one can be a path towards a better life.

It feels great to actually be able to think about my health some more, not have to think about cleaning my teeth every time I eat something. And great service from the dentist and dental nurse, obviously, smashing people. I’m thankful to them just for making it possible.