Mobile clinic offering free dental care to homeless people coming to Eastbourne and St Leonards

A mobile clinic offering free dental care to homeless people is coming to Eastbourne and St Leonards.
Volunteers with a patient in the mobile unitVolunteers with a patient in the mobile unit
Volunteers with a patient in the mobile unit

Dentaid will make monthly visits to both towns starting from December.

The Hampshire-based charity already operates in Southampton and other locations in the South East.

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Jill Harding, communications director at Dentaid, said it was asked to come to East Sussex by the area’s Rough Sleeper’s Initiative. “They said there was a huge demand,” she said.

Dentaid's mobile unitDentaid's mobile unit
Dentaid's mobile unit

According to the charity, 70 per cent of homeless people have dental problems and 15 per cent have tried to extract their own teeth.

Jill said: “Dental health is so connected to other problems homeless people have.”

Some are unable to eat even if they are given food because their teeth are so bad, she said, while others are driven to self-medicate with alcohol and drugs.

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For many, it affects their self-confidence and might put them off attending job interviews, Jill said, adding: “Sometimes they can’t look people in the eye because they are embarrassed about their teeth.”

A patient being treated at the mobile unitA patient being treated at the mobile unit
A patient being treated at the mobile unit

She said Dentaid recognised the various barriers that stopped homeless people getting care.

“A lot of people have dental phobias or nervousness about going to the dentist,” she said.

“If they are carrying around their world possessions, they might not feel comfortable going to a dental practice.”

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To combat this, Dentaid’s mobile clinics travel to places where homeless people are likely to feel more comfortable – such as soup kitchens or hostels.

Recognising that vulnerable people might find it difficult to stick to plans, no appointments are necessary – people can just turn up.

The mobile clinics can provide simple fillings, extractions, protective treatments and oral cancer screenings.

Everyone is also given a toothbrush and toothpaste and advised on how to look after their teeth.

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Jill said the mobile clinics were welcomed by homeless services, which were often frustrated at how little they could help clients with teeth problems.

Without dental expertise, all they could do for people in pain was take them to A&E.

Figures obtained by JPIMedia show that, across England, almost 64,000 people suffering dental problems turned to A&E departments and minor injury units in 2019/20 (East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust did not respond to our Freedom of Information Request).

But the British Dental Association said that, in almost all cases, patients were unlikely to get anything more than pain relief, meaning this route offered people little help while lumbering the NHS with extra costs.

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Dentaid’s mobile clinic will visit the Salvation Army headquarters in Eastbourne on Wednesdays, starting on December 16, and Seaview in St Leonard’s on Thursdays, starting from December 17.

From then on, it will visit during the last week of each month.

Jill said Dentaid was expecting all of its services across the country to be busy.

“The need is huge, it’s worse than ever. It was massive before lockdown, it’s going to be even worse after the second lockdown,” she said.

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Dentaid was originally set up in 1996 to work in poverty-stricken countries overseas, but in December 2015 the first UK project took place in Dewsbury offering free clinics for people struggling to access dental care.

Dr Simon Clavell-Bate is one of the dentists who volunteers for the charity.

He said it was baffling that charity was needed for people to get basic treatment on their teeth.

“I can’t quite get my head round that in the UK there are still people that can’t get the care that they need,” he said. “We shouldn’t need Dentaid, but we do.”

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He said he had treated patients whose teeth had been reduced to ‘brown stumps’ which were ‘wobbly and bleeding’, adding: “We’re helping people that really do need it.”

Dentaid is appealing for dentists, dental nurses and assistants in East Sussex who willing to volunteer at its mobile clinic to get in touch. Find out more at www.dentaid.org/uk

See more from out #dentistryindecay investigation: ‘Crisis looming’ over access to NHS dentistry in East Sussex