Do-it-yourself dentistry

I was sitting here minding my own business when I got this from Siggy: Patients pull own teeth as dental contract falters

• Survey reveals lack of access to NHS treatment
• Around 50% say they do not understand fee system

Large numbers of people are going without dental treatment and some even report extracting their own teeth because they cannot find an NHS dentist in their area, a survey reveals today.

How bad is it, you ask? It's this bad:

But 6% of the respondents said they were self-treating, which often included pulling out their own troublesome teeth. "Fourteen teeth have had to be removed by myself using pliers," said one Lancashire respondent. "Have pulled teeth out before, easier than finding a dentist," said one in Hull. "Because I could not afford the treatment cost, I had to extract my own tooth on one occasion," said one in Harrow. "I took most of my teeth out in the shed with pliers. I have one to go," said another in Wiltshire.

I do not like going to the dentist even when I have very good teeth and, except for impacted wisdom teeth, have never needed much work done. I thank fluoridated water and regular dental check-ups for that. More importantly, being exceedingly adverse to pain (whether self-inflicted or inflicted by others, dentists or anyone else), the thought of pliers approaching a human body is... creepy beyond words.

But this NHS problem is caused by governmental price-fixing:

Fixed charging bands meant dentists were better off if they treated people who needed less work...
"There is no incentive in the contract to take on new patients who often have high needs. I feel the contract discriminates against people who probably need me most," wrote another.

Dymphna ponders National Health or Individual Well-Being?

In the end, it comes down to what we consider important. Will it be bread and circuses now or regular dental care and savings for old age? The statement from the bureaucrat quoted above - i.e., is dental care “a universal, affordable, service to which people have entitlement as citizens and tax- payers?” - strikes me as the epitome of what’s wrong with socialized medicine. Entitlements of any sort ruin what is best about human beings: their strivings for liberty. Entitlements breed resentment and envy. They are never enough and no government could raise enough taxes to offset the death of enterprise and striving that comes with making one’s own way in the world.

In fact, I would hazard a guess that the number of dentists per capita in Britain has probably declined since the onset of the systemic illness known as the NHS.

I pray that the US can avoid that particularly rabid affliction, one which the Democrats are anxious to bestow upon us, using our money -- while they studiously avoid discussing the damage and side-effects such a disease would impose upon the body politic.

The more you place constraints on supply and demand, the worse things get, whether it's in dentistry or in anything else.

(empahsis added to all links)