It's like torture.. we should not see this

Whistleblower on the -horrors of DIY dentistry. Patients pulling teeth & gluing crowns back on

- MARTIN BAGOT

HOSPITALS are fixing horrifying mouth injuries from patients forced to rip out their teeth, a top dentist warns.

Tom Thayer says he and colleagues are increasingly seeing people with pus-filled gums and potentially fatal sepsis from molar shards left behind.

Other botched DIY dentistry includes people who have glued their crowns back on.

Clinics are also having to send patients who have taken too many painkillers for overdose testing, Tom revealed. It comes as a new poll of dentists showed 82% are treating people who have attempted DIY care.

Tom, 65, a hospital consultant who deals with complex oral problems, said: "Sometimes we see the patient immediately and sometimes it could be a week or a month later.