Copyright 2012
This is a true story, but the names have been changed to protect me against guilty parties who might try to sue me for telling the truth.
My problem started when I was in my late 30’s, and for reasons I am not fully aware of, I began having very heavy periods. When I registered with the General Practice (GP) in Reading, having recently moved into the town from Basingstoke, I mentioned my very heavy periods to the nurse when I asked about getting the Depo Provera injections for birth control. The nurse merely told me that she would have to keep an eye on my periods, and if necessary, she would give me something to stop the bleeding. In the decade since I had expressed concern about my unusually heavy periods, not one medical professional took any efforts to investigate why I had such heavy and long menses. Every time I mentioned it, for over a decade, if I received any response at all, it was simply that they would keep an eye on it, but in reality they never did because my periods were getting heavier and longer by the month, and no action was taken to prevent this other than prescribe birth control, which came with its own set of side-effects.
Parallel to my gynaecological problems were also my dental problems. When I was a child I was plagued with cavities and my mother took me to the dentist, who took x-rays and gave me several fillings. After that initial dental treatment I did not see a dentist again until I was 18 years old and joined the United States Air Force (USAF). The military dentist wanted to remove my wisdom teeth, but I did not want to have the procedure performed and put it off until I was 22 when the teeth had become impacted. After having my wisdom teeth extracted the next dental trouble I had was a temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder and I was given a splint to wear for 3 months but, sadly, the dentist who gave it to me didn’t tell me that I would need to wear it every night for the rest of my left as well. Around 2000, therefore, my TMJ trouble resurfaced and the pain being unbearable, I obtained a new splint from the NHS dentist I had registered with in the Reading town centre.
The NHS dentist I was registered at
For the majority of the time I have lived in Reading I have been on a low income and was not in a position to afford private medical and dental care, so I chose to register with an National Health Service (NHS) out of necessity, not personal choice, incorrectly assuming that a NHS dentist would be comparable to a private dentist and provide me with the same quality of treatment. I would like to say that this time that the dental practice that I was registered at was absolutely filthy. I had never been sick before and only vaguely recall getting any dental treatment when I was a small child, so I had no experience of what a dentist's office should look like. When you went into the bathrooms they were in an appalling state of disrepair. The magazines on the coffee table were years old and people even were so uncouth as to put their used chewing gum in between the pages of the magazines and actually on the coffee table that supported them, and the cleaners never removed these documents.
Easter Weekend
The next dental crisis I had was in the spring of 2003, only a couple of years after I had obtained my splint, which I faithfully wore every night. I had found a huge cavity behind my back left molar. I went to see Mr Green at the NHS dental practice I was registered at and made an appointment to have it filled the Monday before Easter. During this consultation no x-rays were taken to determine the extent of the decay, but I had not had much dental experience and I trusted Mr Green knew what he was doing because he was the dentist and I was the patient.
Although I was quite happy to receive a filling from Mr Green because I trusted him, I also have no medical or dental training so I therefore did not know that it was probably inappropriate for him to simply fill such a deep cavity that was so close to the nerve and on the root of the tooth. I therefore went ahead with the filling of the cavity with complete faith in my dentist.
On perhaps the Friday or Saturday after the filling, I noticed blood on my gum where I had had the filling, but I hoped the inflammation would settle down because I had made plans to go away for the weekend with my boyfriend. Unfortunately the inflammation didn’t settle down and the pain intensified the entire weekend as the inflammation spread to my jawbone and even my ear began throbbing. My entire weekend was ruined because I was in such extreme pain. During the weekend I wound up at the Accident and Emergency (A & E) in Burton on Trent where I was given antibiotics, and in pain, I was still expected to go sightseeing with my boyfriend and his friends because they had absolutely no understanding in the world of what it is like to have a dental infection. In agony, therefore, I was required to see the sights of a town I had little interest in when what I actually needed was medical care.
Unfortunately the antibiotics did not seem to have any effect on the infection in my mouth on Easter Monday I had begun vomiting and had diarrhoea, and was very concerned that the infection was going to spread to my bloodstream and possibly even my brain. My boyfriend took me to an emergency dentist and he drilled a hole in the infected tooth to relieve the pressure in my head. The diarrhoea and vomiting had not abated however, so I then had to go to the A & E department at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, and the doctor examining me said that he could find nothing wrong with me. When I explained that I was in agony, he made an appointment for me to see a neurologist on the following day. Once home from the hospital, I collapsed and slept through the night, with the pain, vomiting and diarrhoea slowing waning. The following morning I saw the neurologist who did not examine me but nevertheless said that he could find nothing wrong with me but suggested that since I had a cold sore, I may have had shingles. Trying to be conscientious, I went to my place of work and related to my employer what the neurologist had said, and I was promptly told that I had to leave because one of my colleagues was expecting. I was so upset about the shabby manner in which I had been treated by my employer at that time that I took the rest of the week off, leaving my pregnant colleague safe in the knowledge that I was not passing a non-existent disease onto her.
That afternoon I went to the NHS dental practice I was registered with and again saw Mr Green. He cleaned the root and put a temporary filling into the tooth, making an appointment for a month’s time to perform the root filling. Mr Green never said one word to me about the fact that I would need a crown placed on the dead tooth because when a tooth dies it becomes brittle and can break, thereby allowing bacteria to seep into the root. Because I am not medically or dentally trained and I trusted Mr Green, I accepted his treatment plan, which, I might add, made no provisions for a crown or any x-rays.
Less than a year after having my first root canal I began having trouble with the left side of my face. I went to see Mr Green and he prescribed antibiotics, which did relieve the pain and infection, but since the cause of the problem had not been identified and resolved, as soon as I stopped taking the antibiotics the, pain and infection returned with a great veracity.
St Mary's Hospital, Paddington
I had left my job in Reading and began working as a PALS Coordinator in Paddington. I had been bullied very badly at my previous job, and that coupled with the fact that my son was being especially mean to me and my undiagnosed vascular problems caused the the root canal, I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Nevertheless, I had to go to work regardless of the state of my health, so I began working in that place as a temporary member of staff even though I was panicing and I had pains all the way down my arm and chest. I was in such a panic that I had to go to the emergency room at St Mary's Hospital. This mean lady, KC, told me that she was not happy with me and she was going to give me until the end of the day, and if I did muster up she was going to sack me. She told me quite matter of factly that if I took any time off sick then she was going to get rid of me and get someone else. Weeks, later, with my health problems not yet resolved, because KC had been so wicked to me, I was forced to make a decision, upon her recommendation I might add, that I deeply regret. I feel that KC bullied me into doing this because if I didn't try to do something to resolve my health problems I was going to lose my job, which I wound up losing anyway due to budget cuts.
The First Extraction
Weeks later, with an infected face, I went back to see Mr Green and asked to have the tooth extracted because I was in so much pain and my dental problems were affecting my work. Mr Green pulled the tooth and advised me that there were no signs of infection although the left side of my face was clearly swollen and in pain. Mr Green did not suggest to me that a crown might help and he did not take any x-rays to try to identify the source of the infection. How could there be no signs of infection? My face was swollen and in pain! Because Mr Green told me there were no signs of infection, I took it to mean that he had actually looked at the tooth and I assumed had actually looked at the tooth and had extracted a complete tooth. At no time did I ever imagine he would leave part of a tooth inside of my jaw. He took no efforts whatsoever to isolate the cause of my pain and sent me home with one less tooth. Mr Green never once tried to investiate the cause of the pain and swelling in my face. While I mourned the loss of my tooth, a loss that probably would have been unnecessary if Mr Green had put a crown on the tooth, used x-rays, and had investigated the cause of the infection, or had alternatively referred me to a specialist who would have been qualified to perform a root canal properly. Unfortunately, even though I had lost a tooth, the pain in the left side of my face never went away and it was still swollen. The inflammation was such that I was in pain whenever I tried to speak or speak.
The Royal Berkshire Hospital
Sometime later, therefore, I decided to see Mrs Green at the same NHS dental practice because I didn’t trust Mr Green anymore. Mrs Green did not take any x-rays but nevertheless said that she could not find anything wrong with my teeth, so she referred me to the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading where they took X-rays and I spoke to the dentist. At the consultation he told me he could find nothing wrong with my teeth in the X-ray. When I informed him that I had difficulty opening my mouth and it hurt when I talked, he told me that I could open my mouth a lot wider than a lot of people and perhaps I should just not talk then. At the time of the consultation I did not know that cracked teeth will not show up on an X-ray, so I left the hospital dejected and despondent, without any hope that my dental problems would ever be resolved.
I truly understand why people don’t want to go to the dentist because some dentists, NHS dentists in particular, usually do little if anything to resolve the pain that prompted the visit in the first place. Because they don’t use x-rays and don’t try to save teeth, any person using an NHS dentist will usually end up losing his teeth, as I did. Therefore, in pain, I struggled on, living on aspercreme, which I would rub on the swollen left side of my face. Since the NHS had let me down and was not even remotely interested in trying to find a resolution to my pain and swelling, I had to resort to self-medication, which I should not have had to do.
Aspercreme
Because the dental practice I was registered at and the Royal Berkshire Hospital refused to treat my facial pain, I had to resort to self treatment. I had to purchase aspercreme and apply it to my face after I spoke or ate. It was sad really that I was spending so much of my salary on National Insurance Contributions and the NHS was refusing to treat my health condition, which several years later I would learn was caused by their own negligent and unhygienic practices.
Skin complaints
It was in early 2004 that I noticed lumps under my eyes that would not go away. I went to a beauty therapist and she performed electrologis to try to remove them, but they didn't go away. I was then referred to a dermatolotist at the Royal Berkshire Hospital to look at the lumps on my face. After having waited months for an appointment, when the doctor finally me he looked at my face and walked out of the room, saying that anything he did would just make it worse. I was therefore forced to treat myself in this instance, so I put wart medication on the lumps and after a while they seemed to decrease in size, but never really went away. Years later, when I went into a beauty store that gave facials, I was told that the skin was conjested and prescribed skin care for it. I was told that if the conjested skin didn't go away with the skin care products then they would have to go in and extract the milia. Apparently it was a build-up of bacteria under my skin. If the dermatologist had bothered to take a biopsy of my skin he would have seen then that there was a problem with the vascular structure of my body.
Broken Teeth
It was somewhere arounf this time that my twin sister broke a tooth and experienced a lot of pain with her jaw and dental problems. Since I had the same problems I could sympathise, I went to see Mr Green again to discuss with him the problem of my jaw and ask if there was the possibility that I could have arthritis in my jaw. Mr Green didn't even examine my jaw but told me that the jaw is one of the last places that arthritis will hit. What he failed to mention to me was that infection will bring on arthritis, and although I didn't know it at the time, the infection that I got at his dental practice in 2003 had never gone way. I was not to discover that piece of information about my health until late 2012.
One morning, whilst in my kitchen eating breakfast, a chunk of the third tooth from the top back of the left side of my face broke off. The tooth was obviously dead because even though half of it was missing, it did not hurt at all. If it had been alive I believe it would have hurt when it broke. I was therefore forced to go back to see Mr Green to have the tooth repaired. Mr Green merely filled the tooth even though it was badly broken. I asked him what was going to happen next and he advised me that the tooth would become infected, maybe in a week, maybe in a year, and when it became infected the tooth would have to be pulled. Never once did Mr Green advise me that the tooth was so badly damaged that it would need a root canal and never did he say that perhaps I needed specialist care, something that he was not able to provide.
It was in the summer of 2007 that the tooth that Mr Green filled had become infected, as he had predicted it would. This time I saw Mrs Red at the same practice NHS dental practice. When Mrs Red looked at the tooth, she took the first X-ray that had been taken at that practice since I began going there, but she took only an X-ray of the infected tooth and nothing else. In retrospect, it is odd that Mr Green performed a root canal on my tooth without taking one X-ray because the X-ray would have showed him if he had cleaned the root properly and had filled all of the canals. Because he never took any X-rays of my teeth, he had no way of knowing whether or not the root canal was successful. In addition, because he had never put a crown on the tooth, he left it vulnerable to bacteria. Although I had agreed to have a root canal on the second tooth that had become infected, I was worried that it would not take in the same manner as the first root canal had not taken and changed my mind, opting to have the tooth extracted instead. When Mrs Red extracted the tooth, her comment to me was that I had made a wise decision. Although I had not seen the tooth, I can imagine that it must have been severely decayed if she would make a comment like that.
Exposed Nerves
A few months after seeing Mrs Red the relationship with my boyfriend collapsed and I moved into my own studio apartment. In this new flat the hot water tap did not work, so I had to rinse my mouth out with cold water, which was when I discovered my teeth hurt whenever I cleaned my teeth. I went back to see Mrs Red and explained to her that my teeth were sensitive to the cold and she didn’t take any X-Rays or examine my teeth, but only asked me where my teeth hurt. I advised her that my teeth hurt towards the root, and without any examination a all, the told me that my teeth were fine and that I merely had receding gums and the sensitivity I felt was the cold water touching the nerves. I trusted Mrs Red, so when she advised me that my teeth were fine, I endeavoured to drink warm water so my teeth would not hurt all the time. What I also did not know was that at no time did Mrs Red or anyone else at that practice suggest to me that perhaps I would benefit from crowns in those affected teeth to protect them. Since I had no knowledge of dentistry, I did not even know that I could get a crown.
Dental Implants
It was the following year, 2008, that I went to see Mr Dark at his dental practice in Lower Earley, Reading. He installed an implant in the socket of the tooth that Mrs Red had extracted. At that time I chose not to have an implant on the back tooth that Mr Green had extracted, mainly because of the expense. The implant was placed over a number of appointments, first to place a titanium screw into my jaw, then to remove the stitches, next to place a post in the implant, and finally to place a porcelain tooth on top on the post.
Intestinal Problems
It was also during 2008 that I began having problems with my gastrointestinal tract. Of course at that time I had no idea just what bad condition my teeth were in because I had been reassured that they were fine. I would wake up every morning with a sore throat and had no idea why. One morning I awoke at 5:30 am to go to work. I went into the kitchen to take my vitamins and they became stuck in my throat. The excruciating pain had never happened to me before and I didn’t know if I was having a heart attack. I rang emergency services and the paramedic came around. The only thing I was able to do was to spit up saliva and nothing else. Eventually the tablets must have either dissolved or made their way down to my stomach on their own because after some time I was able to drink liquid. The paramedic asked me if I had ever had an endoscopy and I told him that I wanted to but my GP would not refer me for one, presumably because she did not want to spend her practice’s money. He told me that I needed an endoscopy and wrote a letter to my GP saying that I needed one.
That morning I went in to see Mrs Hue at the GP surgery I was registered at and gave her the letter from emergency services. She wrote a referral letter for me to have an endoscopy at a GP surgery near the hospital under local aesthetic. What she failed to do, however, was to order blood tests and if she had done that she would have seen that I was severely anaemic, a medical condition that I had absolutely no knowledge of and had no idea I had anaemia. Mrs Hue told me that I should not be taking vitamins because they were only needed if there was a deficiency in my diet. I did as I was advised and stopped taking all of the vitamins I had been taking because she was a doctor and I trusted her judgement. What I did not know, however, was the calcium tablets I was taking could have helped my teeth and the iron certainly would have helped my anaemia, both problems I knew nothing about.
Endoscopy
It was when I had my endoscopy a few weeks later that I was advised that I have a hiatus hernia, but no corrective action was suggested to me. Because at that time I did not know that I had a problem with my teeth, I attributed my sore throats, earaches and nose bleeds to the hernia. I did not know that decaying teeth can cause all sorts of trouble and of course I did not know my teeth were decaying because the dentist I was registered with told me they were fine, otherwise I would have done something about it.
Intrauterine System
It was during the early part of 2009 I decided to have an interuterine system (IUS) installed because of an abusive partner and during the ultrasound that accompanied the procedure it was discovered I had a large cyst inside of me that did not look as if it was going to rupture on its own, as it had a membrane down the middle of it. In addition, the IUS gave me pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and I was left with a constant discharge as my body tried to clear away the resulting infection.
Anemia
It was when I was referred to the gynaecologist in the local hospital that blood tests were ordered and it was discovered that I was severely anaemic, so anaemic in fact that I was required to have another endoscopy, a colonoscopy, and a blood transfusion. Upon completion of the tests the doctor performing them told me he could find nothing I needed to be concerned about. Biopsies were taken of my small intestine and they could find no evidence of celiac disease, which they believed I had acquired, but it was suggested that I stay on a gluten free diet, which they felt was causing the internal bleeding. I recall quite vividy that when I went to see Dr Tint about the anemia, I mentioned to her that it took me such a long time to do things. Her immediate reply to me was that she was not interested in my psychological problems, only my physical ones. I was a bit hurt by that remark because she of all people should have realised that if I was that anemic then it of course would affect my ability to do things, so it was not a psychological problem. I feel that was an attempt on her part to label me as being mentally unstable, which I am not.
Decaying Teeth
The matter of the cyst was still yet to be resolved, but at the same time my teeth still needed attention. My front tooth is broken due to a childhood incident and that filling needed to be replaced, along with others. It was at this time that I began to seriously worry about the health of my teeth, but I had no idea just how badly decayed they actually were. The problem was that the NHS dental surgery I used only filled cavities that were easy to see. They totally ignored my back teeth except when I asked for a filling to be replaced because it was old. If I did not specifically ask for any work to be done on my back teeth, or any teeth for that matter, they completely ignored them and from the events that were to later transpire, I believe with regard to my back teeth in particular, whenever they replaced a filling they only introduced yet more bacteria into my teeth because from what I could see, their working practices were not that hygienic and they never bothered to modernise their equipment.
My First Gynaecological Operation
Around August 2009 I finally received the operation to remove the cyst. Although I had been told that I would be kept in overnight if they gave me a laporatomy, they sent me home instead on the day of the operation because I was sent home and not kept in overnight. I therefore got a haematoma and a nasty infection that took a couple of months to clear. During the operation, the IUS that had been installed six months previously had to be removed. In addition, before the operation I had been given very strong antibiotics, which had the effect of clearing abscesses out of my fallopian tubes, which had also been blocked. The PID I had been suffering from, therefore, had been cleared as a result of the operation.
Heavy Bleeding
Immediately after the operation, however, I began suffering from severe bleeding, haemorrhaging in fact, but since I had suffered from heavy periods for many years, I tried to just live with the situation because nothing had ever been done before when I complained of heavy periods. When I had my one-month follow-up appointment at the hospital, I even told the gynaecologist that my wound had not completely healed and my bleeding was excessively heavy, but he discharged me nevertheless when I said I felt I was on the mend.
A Feeling of Being Unwell
In the new year of 2010 I began to feel very tired and was worried that the anemia I had previously suffered from had returned. I went to see Dr Hue at my GP practice and she told me that I was not anaemic, but was not prepared to take any further action when I told her that I was still unwell. In retrospect, I honestly cannot believe that Dr Hue was able to look me in the eye and tell me that I was not anaemic because my periods were so heavy that many days I would use a pack of extra absorbent sanitary napkins every day. Nevertheless, I believed and trusted Dr Hue because I had no reason not to so left her office without being given any treatment plan for my heavy periods or feelings of ill health.
I continued to have very heavy periods, so heavy in fact that I would have to get up four or five time in the middle of the night to clean myself and change my napkins, and I would often feel like collapsing from the heavy blood low and resulting anaemia, Dr Tint at my GP practice prescribed tranexamic acid to reduce the bleeding but it was only a temporary fix to a very serious problem.
Skin Complaints
My persistant skin complaints have never resolved themselves. I have a rash across my back that has been there for years. When I went to see Dr Tint to discuss the rash, she told me that I had a fungus and that I must use a dandruff shampoo. She therefore prescribed me this very strong shampoo to use and it only made my hair brittle, but did nothing for the rash on my back. When I went back to see Dr Tint to tell her that the shampoo didn't help, she told me that she was sure I had a fungus and to keep using the shampoo. That rash never resolved itself, and today I have even more blotches of dermatitis on my back.
The Dentist Finally Noticed My Teeth Were Decaying
It was also during this period that I went to see Mrs Green at the NHS dental practice I was registered at and she asked me if there had been any changes to my diet because my teeth were beginning to decay. This was the first time I had any idea that my teeth were in such poor condition, so I began to be extra vigilant and tried to change my diet to help my teeth, but nothing seemed to help. The only thing that Mrs Green did was to put a fluoride treatment on my teeth, but if my teeth were in such a state of rapid decay then certainly they would need a lot more work than a paint brush with a little bit of fluoride on it sloshed across my front teeth. I feel that this was the third opportunity that someone in that dental practice had to tell me that they were not specialised and therefore not capable of doing any kind of complicated work. They only filled teeth and pulled them, but if I wanted to save my teeth I would need to see a qualified specialist. Sadly, on this occasion Mrs Green let me down because I know now that nobody in that practice was qualified to perform any kind of specialist work, which is something that my teeth desperately needed, although I had no idea at all just how badly I needed it because they didn’t tell me. I could see quite clearly the brown ridges on my teeth close to the gums but was powerless to do anything because I trusted my dentist and she was totally ignoring the decay in the hard to reach places, preferring instead to concentrate on the really easy to see and reach cavities on my front teeth. I was not medically trained in any way so although I was concerned, if my dentist ignored the problem then what was I to do?
Face and Head Pain
It was also around May 2010 that I began having very bad headaches. The pain would start at my right temple and would radiate all the way down to my jaw. These headaches occurred daily, so I was required to take over the counter pain medication in order to work and carry on with my day-to-day life.
In June 2010, in addition to the headaches, I began getting pain in my ear, so much so in fact that I had trouble with my balance. I also had a fever every day for the entire month of June. In July the fevers continued, but maybe every other day instead of every day. These fevers and sweats continued and most people dismissed them as hot flashes, but they certainly didn’t feel like any hot flashes I had ever experienced. To this day I still have fevers, but since I have been treating myself with herbs and foods that are supposed to reduce inflammation, improve circulation, work as antibacterial agents, and thin the blood, I don't feel quite so feverish as I normally do.
In August of 2010 I began feeling very unwell and had the sensation of something like electric shocks all over my body and having much less coordination than I was used to. I also saw flashes of light in front of my eyes on many occasions, so went to see Dr Easle at my GP practice. He checked my balance and eyes, and merely told me to have my eyes tested and not to get water in my ears, sending me home with eardrops. I did as I was told and got both my eyes and ears tested, only to be told they were normal.
On one occasion in August 2010 when I went to see Dr Easle, he said he thought my problem was musculo-skeletal. Although he had a chest x-ray performed, he did not order any more tests or x-rays to check to see if my musculo-skeletal system was working properly. In retrospect, I believe that Dr Easle and the other doctors at that practice had labelled me as a neurotic, middle aged, menopausal woman, so they were not prepared to take my concerns about my health seriously, as they didn’t actually believe that anything was wrong with me.
Full Body CT Scan
Being so worried about my deteriorating health, I went to a place in Guildford and had a full body scan performed. The only thing the scan picked up was my long-standing gynaecological problems, saying my womb was bulky, and recommending a transvaginal ultrasound. A year later, when I read the report, it said I had the breathing of a person 25 years older than myself, but because all other tests were within normal range, they believed the breathing test had not been performed correctly.
As my health declined, I began bleeding every day. I went to see Mrs Cerise at the GP practice I was registered at and she gave me a pregnancy test even though I told her there was no possibility I could be pregnant, and the fact she did not believe me when I told her I was not sexually active just shows how little faith she had in me and she did not believe me to be a credible person. Mrs Cerise then told me to keep a diary of the days I bled, but that was a pointless exercise in itself because I bled every day. I just wondered when exactly they are going to do something about my heavy periods and daily bleeding.
Mrs Cerise told me that I looked good to her, and I suppose that is why she did not take my complaints about my health seriously. Many people who I spoke to about my health, professionally and personally, told me that I looked really good. If everybody who looked at me thought I looked good then I am not surprised they thought my complaints about my health were all in my head, but I found it quite hurtful that even people who I thought were my friends dismissed my pain and unwellness, saying that I looked good to them, implying that my illness was psychological in nature. The general consensus of friends an foes alike was that all of my problems were in my head, and the events that were to soon transpire would reveal that many of my problems were in fact in my head, but not the part of my head they wanted to believe. It is sad; really, my friends and my family didn’t believe me when I told them I was sick, instead preferring to believe I was mentally unstable.
Cervical Exam
In September 2010, being so worried about the bleeding, I went to a clinic in London and had a cervical exam performed. What upset me was the fact that I told the medical practitioner that I had pain all day long from the top of my head to the bottom of my toes, and her only reply was that she only took care of gynaecological problems and nothing else. Fortunately on this occasion the cervical exam came back normal, but I still bled every day nevertheless. The one thing that I needed was a hysteroscopy, but that was something that I really could not afford to pay for myself, as I had paid for the two previous tests myself, and I am not on a high salary and do not have private medical insurance.
Bladder Weakness
A result of the as yet undiagnoses illness meant that I suffered from bladder and bowel weakness and could not be too far away from a toilet. Mrs Hue prescribed me medication that I was supposed to take so I would not need to use the toilet, but I really didn't want to take drugs, so just tried to only go places where I could get to a ladies room if I needed to. When I went to see a physical therapist about my bladder condition, which I paid for with my own funds, she said that my vaginal wall was quite strong. If my vaginal wall was so strong, I really could not understand why I was always having to use the loo. To this day I still have bladder and bowel problems and I do worry that they will become more severe.
Pain Walking
In September 2010 the pain on my right side had become so intense that I cold barely walk and I was forced to purchase extra padding for my bed because it hurt my joints even to lie down. One evening in desperation, I realised that my muscle tone in my pelvis had become so weak that my womb had become prolapsed. I phoned NHS Direct and the nurse on duty told me that I could go to the A&E department in my local hospital. When I arrived at A & E I was told that my GP had to refer me to a gynaecologist, and that was the dilemma. For some reason I do not know of, my GP surgery simply did not want to refer me to the hospital even though they could see quite clearly that I had gynaecological problems that needed to be investigated. I now know that the reason why my GP did not refer me was because they did not want money for my treatment to come out of their budget, so they instead decided to do nothing.
That morning I was referred back to my GP and again I saw Mrs Hue. She said that she could examine me if I liked, but when I had the cervical exam there were no problems. Because Mrs Hue did not want to examine me I did not push the matter, leaving the practice without a proper examination. One thing she did do, however, was to refer me to a physiotherapist, but the first available day I was allowed to arrange my appointment, I discovered that my GP had given me a non-urgent appointment and she had been so apathetic that she had referred me to the wrong type of physiotherapist. Because the physiotherapist I had been referred to did not deal with ladies matters I was required to search for another physiotherapist, at my own expense. I was so upset about my GP’s lackadaisical attitude that I decided to change GP’s. To add insult to injury, I was so upset about what my GP had done that I told someone at work who I was friendly with and he had very unflexible thinking on the matter. Another colleague overhead me and went and told the company nurse that he was concerned about my health, thereby involving my work in my deteriorating health, which was something I defiantly didn’t want to happen.
Walking
I remember being so very ill and feeling so bad, and the only thing that made me feel better was to walk. I would walk anytime and anywere I could just to relieve some of the pain in my body. I recall being so sick and trying to carry on with life, and people who were supposed to be my friends would make comments to me such as, "you look fine to me" or " the only thing that is wrong with you is you need to go to the gym". I found these comments to be quite hurtful because I was so sick and all I wanted to do was to find out what was making me so ill. I told one lady at work how unwell I felt and wondered if it was anything to do with the menopause, and she made a point of telling me that she was normal and that she didn't have any of those kinds of problems. Of course, it was two years later when I had finally been told that the bacterial infection I had been given at the dental practice had caused the structure of my blood vessels to alter so that infection was no longer able to flow out of them. It was then that I understood why I liked walking so much, as it served to giggle the infection out of my body.
Hormone Replacement Therapy
Around October 2010, having changed GP surgeries to one located in Reading’s high street, I saw a lady doctor who, having observed me, thought I would benefit from Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). I was keen to try anything that would reduce the infection in my body and help me to be able to walk better. At this time I was barely able to walk and had been performing pelvic floor exercises to try to reduce the prolapse in my pelvis. My symptoms of hormone depletion, or what I believed to be a deficiency, were so severe that my hearing and concentration were very badly affected. If anyone even scratched a rough surface the sound of the two items together made scraping against each other was excruciating for me to hear. I also had flashes of light before my eyes, which I found to be deeply disturbing. Eager to try anything to bring my life back to some semblance of normality, I took the HRT that had been prescribed to me. I immediately felt better and within a few days the muscle tone in my pelvis had improved, thereby reducing the prolapse and helping me to walk better. I was beginning to feel like a new woman, or so I thought.
Sick To My Back Teeth
Also in October 2010 I began noticing that my back teeth, the one that Mrs Brown had recently filled in particular, was sensitive to cold. I went back to Mrs Brown and told her my concerns and she said the filling had been very deep and she may need to kill the nerve. Instead of speaking to me about how she was going to go about killing the offending nerve, she just prescribed antibiotics. Although I was supposed to be an NHS patient, she wrote me a private prescription and I was required to pay over £20 in order to get the medication that I needed, which upset me because I am not and have never been on a high income.
I went back to see Mrs Brown in early November for another filling and I think the thing that annoys me the most is the fact that I told her specifically that I was going to the United States (US) for a visit and I didn’t want any trouble with my teeth. Mrs Brown assured me that my teeth were perfectly fine and to come back in six months’ time for a check-up.
Maybe I had a precognition when I told Mrs Brown I was going away and did not want any trouble with my teeth whilst away, but truly and honestly, I had no idea what was to transpire in the weeks that followed. The one thing I would like to ask you, the reader, is what good was it for me to go back to the NHS dental practice time and time again if they totally ignored my teeth and failed to address what was soon to become a major health problem?
The NHS Is Not Free
I would also like to remind the reader that the NHS is not free, as many people would like to believe. The NHS is paid for by National Insurance Contributions (NIC) taken directly out of my paycheque. NHS GPs are paid a subsidy every time they see a patient, and it is for that reason they are quite happy to make an appointment to see a patient as often as he would like, even if they do little for them. If a NHS GP refers a patient to the hospital then that money is taken out of their budget in many cases, and that is perhaps why Mrs Hue and Mrs Tint were reluctant to refer me to a gynaecologist even though they could see quite clearly that I had gynaecological problems: they did not want the money for their treatment to come out of their budget.
NHS dentists are also paid for their work in addition to what they receive from the NHS. They are paid a subsidy every time they see a patient, they can charge a patient for their services, and they are allowed to charge private rates if they like, even if their work is not up to private standards, and they can also earn additional money by writing private prescriptions. As far as NHS dentistry is concerned, it is a win-win situation for the dentist all around.
With regard to my payment of the NHS dentistry that I received at the practice I was registered at, I had to pay fourfold:-
1. NIC was taken directly out of my paycheque for the past 19 years.
2. I paid the NHS dentist every time I went for a check-up and they always said my teeth were fine, even though I was to learn disappointingly that that definitely was not the case.
3. I paid for any prescriptions, fillings, or any other work that needed to be performed, all the back teeth, I would like to note, conveniently neglected unless I brought a problem specifically to my dentist’s attention.
4. Finally, I had to find a private specialist dentist myself and spend an inordinate amount of money, more than a year’s salary to be exact, in the tens of thousands of pounds sterling taken from my savings, on crowns, overlays, root canals, implants and fillings to try to correct the problem caused by the fact that virtually all of the work performed by the NHS practice I was registered at was of such a poor quality that it had to be corrected.
In November 2010, as fate would have it, the back teeth on both sides of my mouth went bad during my visit to the United States. Unfortunately the teeth on the right side of my face hurt the worst and the pain was pretty much unbearable. Somehow, I was able to make it back to the United Kingdom (UK) and upon arrival at Heathrow I phoned the NHS dental practice and asked for an emergency appointment, and they would not give me one, telling me that the earliest appointment available was the one I had already made for the following day, which I had made a week previously.
Dental Infection
Whilst waiting for my appointment to see Mrs Brown the pain in my mouth was so bad that I literally counted the hours until my allotted time. I was nauseous and had diarrhoea, and could see the infection spread across the inside of my mouth. I knew the infection was moving into my brain because my concentration and verbal comprehension was almost non-existant, and I was not even able to read a newspaper.
When I arrived at my dental appointment, having waited painfully in earnest for it, Mrs Brown told me that I had a cavity in a hard to reach place in the bottom third tooth from the back, and that tooth would need a root canal, which she could perform because it was easy to do. The point I am trying to make is that I had been going to see Mrs Brown monthly for the past six months and she had told me that my teeth were fine when in fact they were very severely decayed to the point that my health had been seriously compromised. Why, after all this time, did she not say I had a cavity in a hard to reach place?
The two back teeth, Mrs Brown advised me, needed root canals also, but she was not qualified to perform that kind of work and did not have specialist equipment to do so. Odd, I had been going to that practice for ten years and that was the first time anyone had been honest and told me they could not perform any kind of specialist work. Mrs Brown offered to refer me to an endodontist she knew and I was not happy at all because I was sitting in her chair listening to her tell me that she could not do the work, but that she was quite happy to refer me to someone who could. I felt that the dentist and the dental practice were abandoning me as she told me she could do nothing for me. Why hadn’t she told me that from the very beginning? Why had she strung me along, allowing my teeth and health to get worse and worse by the day, taking my money for each and every visit until my health and teeth had deteriorated to the point it was unlikely they would ever be salvaged? Why hadn’t that NHS dental practice made it clear to me that they were only capable of providing a very basic service of fillings and extractions, and if I wanted to save my teeth I needed to see a private specialist, and avoid NHS dentists like the plague?
I suppose that Mrs Brown was trying to make me feel better when she told me that the pain would shortly go away because my teeth were dying, but really, why would I possibly feel better knowing that I was most likely going to lose my teeth? She was incorrect, however, because my teeth were so badly abscessed that the pain never went away. I just endured varying shades of agony as more and more work would eventually be done to try to relieve the pain in my head and mouth that just would not go away.
A Part of My Tooth Broke Off
It was the weekend after Mrs Brown told me she could do nothing for me and I needed to see an endodontist that a chunk of the top back right tooth literally broke off when I was at a social event. I had an appointment to see her the following week, so when I saw her, I showed her the tooth. Mrs Brown merely filled over the exposed nerve and told me that at some point I would need a root canal treatment. This was the fourth tooth that I feel had been inappropriately treated at that NHS practice. I allowed Mrs Brown to fill my tooth over the exposed nerve because I had no idea of the consequences of filling right over a nerve would have on me. The tooth would die and over the next six months it had become infected and I was in agonising pain. It was not until the following March 2011 that I realised the tooth had become infected when only touching it with my finger caused me to almost faint from pain.
The last time I saw Mrs Brown she told me that she could get me an appointment quickly to see the endodontist that she wanted to refer me to if I liked. I was particularly upset about her desire to refer me to a specialist because I had already made an appointment and arranged a treatment plan with Mr Dark. I didn’t understand why Mrs Brown thought I would want to see an endodontist of her choosing because if she was not qualified to perform complicated and specialised work then how did I know this referral was? In addition, I was taken aback that she would suggest such a thing to me because I had already told her that I was going to see Mr Dark. I later found out that it is permissible to earn commissions from referring patients to specialists, which I suppose is what Mrs Brown was endeavouring to do. I feel that she was attempting to make money off of me just one more time before I was totally abandoned by her, and I don’t feel that people in the healing professions should be exploiting patients for their own financial gain because it is not moral or ethical.
I feel particularly abused by that NHS dental practice because they took large sums of money from both the NHS and myself, but they left my teeth in such a terrible state that was very nearly irreparable. On at least four occasions that practice gave me fillings which, in my opinion, were inappropriate treatment because I needed root canals in all of the aforementioned teeth that had been filled by that practice, and I needed crowns to be placed on those root canalled teeth. I feel the NHS dental practice I was registered at was more interested in making money off the NHS and their patients than looking after the best interests of their patients, and they wanted to give fillings because they were easy to do and they made them the most money the most quickly by giving them. That practice also never told me until after ten years of seeing them that they were not qualified to perform any specialist work and if I wanted to save my teeth I needed to see a private specialist dentist. Imagine my astonishment when I realised that NHS dentistry is simply not up to scratch and would not adequately care for people’s teeth. I went to that dental practice because it was a NHS practice and I trusted the NHS. Boy did the NHS betray my trust.
In addition, more than a year later when I obtained an incomplete set of dental records from that practice, I had apparently signed a document that said that I was a private patient and would be charged private rates. I was just asked to sign the document and they did not explain to me that I no longer an NHS patient. If I had seriously considered the implications of the fact that I was no longer an NHS patient I would have further considered their treatment of me. It is unbelievable really to think that a practice that did not have any modern equipment and did not offer any services that would be considered of a private nature, such as hygienist treatment, crowns, root canals, an implants could call itself private. In addition, as late as the end of 2011 they still had a huge placard stating they were an NHS dentist on the outside of the building when all the time they were charging people private rates and they certainly were not operating at any kind of acceptable standard. I have no doubt that practice did more to harm people than it ever did to help them.
A New Dental Practice
In December 2010 I began seeing Mr Dark to correct all of the neglect and maltreatment of my teeth from ten years of attending the NHS dental practice I had been registered at. I was sent to a hygienist and after she spoke to me she told me that stress was a contributing factor to my tooth decay, that my autoimmune system was not working properly and my body did not have the ability to keep my teeth clean. She also told me that I needed to use an electric toothbrush and interdental sticks, which is something that I had never been told before. Because of the spacing of my teeth I was advised to use dental floss as well, which I already used, so it was good to know that I was doing at least one thing correctly.
According to the treatment plan that Mr Dark has given me, when my treatment was complete, I would have had two implants, nine crowns, and numerous fillings, which I find to be totally amazing considering the fact that in November 2010 and all previous occasions bar one, I had been told that my teeth were fine and to come back in six months’ time for a check-up. If my teeth were fine, how on earth did they end up in such a terrible state in less than a month? Did they all just decay and abscess in the space of one short month from November to December 2010? Is such a thing possible? I doubt it. What is closer to the trust is that the practice just wanted to be paid for checking teeth, and since it only had rudimentary equipment certainly not up to 20th century standards, it was going to say patients teeth were fine and wait until they were so badly decayed that they would be paid again yet more money to extract them, unless of course, they could earn a commission for referring the patient for a root canal with another dentist.
The only thing that Mr Dark has been able to do is to try and save my teeth and there was no guarantee they could be salvaged, although he has a 98% success rate. The aftermath of this extensive dental work is the fact that I live in constant pain and have had to take amiitriptyline for the pain since over the counter pain medication was no suitable. I also have nerve damage in the right side of my face, which after a year has still not repaired itself. In addition, the left side of my face suffers from swelling and chronic sinus infections, which again, has not been resolved. Having crowns is no substitute for real teeth that are healthy and in good condition. I can say from personal experience that dental/facial pain is one of the worst experiences imaginable and for a period of more than six months my pain was a living hell and I honestly don’t know how I made it through each day. Some people don’t make it through the day and opt for suicide in a bid to relieve their suffering. Because the NHS dental practice I was registered at didn’t tell me that I needed specialist care and on at least four occasions gave me fillings when root canals were needed, I no longer have the benefit of a pain-free and infection-free existence.
Haemorrhaging
It was during the Christmas holidays in 2010 that I began haemorrhaging. The oestrogen from the HRT must have kicked in and the end result was that the heavy periods I had previously had had become so heavy that I could no longer leave the flat. Whenever I finally did stop haemorrhaging, I would be so weak from blood loss that I very nearly collapsed a few times. I was prescribed progesterone to stop the bleeding and was no longer able to take HRT because it exacerbated the problem. An ultrasound revealed that I had two huge fibroids just above my cervix and I was scheduled to have an operation to remove the tumours and scrape the endometrium of my womb.
Whilst in hospital for my gynaecological operation I requested pain relief, not for the surgical wound, but for my dental problems and facial pain, so that should say something about the pain and discomfort that I endure each and every day because the NHS dental practice I was registered at did not tell me how to properly care for my teeth and only did anything on my teeth at my specific request, simply taking my and the NHS’s money and telling me my teeth were fine when it later transpired that they were not.
I have been left with debilitating headaches and facial pain that began in May 2010 and has never relented, sometimes the pain was so severe that I almost passed out from it all. I also have been left with the left side of my face swollen since at least October 2010 and Mr Dark has told me that my teeth should not be causing me so much pain and swelling, so that too needs to be further investigated.
My Swollen Face
After my gynaecological operation I went to see my new GP about my headaches, which had caused me to have muscle spasms and bleeding within my eye, and he observed that there is scar tissue in my ears and said that an ear nose and throat (ENT) specialist will do nothing about scar tissue in both my ears. He could see that the left side of my face was swollen and arranged for an X-ray of my sinus cavity. The following week I had pain in my shoulder and my GP arranged for an x-ray of my neck as well, believing that I could have a problem in my cervical spine. What upsets me is the fact that my teeth were in such a terrible condition that the tooth decay had to be corrected before the pain in my face could be further investigated, and this has had the effect of delaying any diagnosis and hopeful resolution to the problem in my face.
Uncalled-for Statements Made by Solicitors
I was in contact with a personal injury solicitor in Oxford and she wrote me a very rude letter stating that she did not believe the NHS dental practice I had been registered at was negligent because they gave me a few fillings. If what this practice did was not neglect then I don’t know what is. Is it malpractice? I am not medically or legally trained but surely this dental practice should have been made to take responsibility for what they did because I had been left in constant dental, facial, neck and shoulder pain from the extensive dental work that I have had to have done to correct the problems in my teeth that had not identified by that practice. In addition, in November 2011 I was going to finally discover the source of some of the swelling in my face, relating to neglect that I had been subjected to at the NHS dentist I was registered at. This neglect resulted in a perfect breeding ground for bacteria to be introduced into my mouth and throughout my entire body. This bacteria had the effect of giving me infection after infection, to include an infected mole that had to be removed and a nasty scar resulted, pelvic inflammatory disease, post-operative infections, chest infections, sinus infections, and a whole host of other ailments that plagued me from 2003 onwards. Therefore, since this solicitor is not medically trained, as far as I am aware, it would have been best for her to keep her unqualified and unsubstantiated opinions to herself because she really was not helping me.
For instance, after I had my gynaecological operation the infection in my pelvis cleared and this had the effect of relieving to some degree the infection in my mouth and face, although I will always face some degree of infection now because of all of the root canals and implants that now replace my once healthy teeth.
I also looked on the website, WrongDiagnosis.com and found there are 91 co-morbid illnesses associated with tooth decay, so my problems could very well have been related to my teeth, as no one will ever truly know what impact all of that bacteria from those decaying and broken teeth had on my body. As it stands, my mouth, ears and sinuses are always infected and I attribute this to the fact that firstly, my teeth had decayed in the first instance and the NHS dental practice didn’t tell me, and secondly, I have had to have so much corrective dental work performed that my teeth will never be totally free of bacteria and this has set up a scenario of my mouth always being a little infected even on good days.
I would also like to point out that the vast majority of procedures the NHS dentist I was registered at performed without the use of x-rays and I consider the fact that they did so little to protect my teeth, such as take x-rays and care for my back teeth, to be supervised neglect.
In addition to the neglect/malpractice issues surrounding this NHS dental practice, the pain and swelling in my face and head, along with the muscle spasms, needs to be investigated, diagnosed and resolved. If what this NHS dental practice did was not neglect/malpractice, ruining my teeth and my health, somebody please tell me exactly what it is. If the NHS dental establishment is not prepared to look after the best interests of the patient and the legal profession is not prepared to make those deficient practices take responsibility for their shoddy work then what hope do common people have of receiving adequate medical and dental treatment? What recourse do common people have when they are forced by necessity to see a NHS Dental Practice and that dentist lets them down so badly, as my NHS dental practice did me?
My First Visit to See a Neurologist
In May 2011 I saw a Neurologist at the Royal Berkshire Hospital and he ran a few tests and ordered a CT scan. He told me that he thought my headaches are tension headaches, although I have no history of ever having headaches before February 2010. He advised me not to take over the counter pain medication because he felt they were actually making my headaches worse, but instead to take amitriptyline, which is an antidepressant that blocks the nerve signals in my brain. I personally am not happy to take antidepressants but since the over the counter pain medication actually makes my pain worse, I have no other choice at this time in my life. I therefore live with the pain as long as I can and take pain medication when I can no longer cope with it.
My First Visit to See an Ear Nose & Throat Specialist
In July 2011, after what I considered to be a very long wait, I finally received my appointment to see an ENT specialist at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. I had such high hopes that he would be able to determine the source of my problems, if not that day, or soon at the very least, but in my opinion, the trip was total waste of time. He said that my GP had referred me for a possible nasal polyp, the only thing he was going to look at was my nose and nothing else. Whilst looking at my nose he said that I had a bone spur, which may have been caused 30 years previously when my first husband, a very abusive man, had broken my nose. He told me that he was not going to treat the bone spur, but prescribed me Nasex nasal spray for allergies and said if I had any further problems I could come back to the ENT clinic. The rest of my problems, such as my swollen face, sore thought and inability to breathe out of one of my nostrils went totally ignored. The specialist did tell me, however, the head x-ray that had been taken in April 2011 was of no use because it was not very good at checking sinuses. The CT scan that had been performed in June 2011 also did not show my sinuses, so that too was pretty much a waste of time as well. Therefore, even though my sinuses need to be looked at, at the time of this writing they still have not been adequately checked.
I was so dissatisfied with the appointment to see the ENT specialist. I looked into the possibility of paying to have my nose repaired myself. I phoned Spire Dunedin Hospital where Dr Maroon, the doctor that had performed scar revision surgery at my own expense, worked. I was advised that an appointment just to see him would be £175 and I would still need to be referred by my GP just to see him. I have little faith in the NHS and therefore decided against asking for a referral, partly because I had not finished paying for my corrective dental treatment, which has amounted to about a year’s salary.
Value for Money?
I was so upset that I was being made to pay for my own medical as well as dental treatment, money that I really could not afford to pay, I looked at my pay statement from my work. In the month of June 2011 alone, I had paid £233.20 for National Insurance and £339.00 for income tax. If one considers the cost of living and inflation indexes and works on the assumption that I have had to pay that amount of money since working in England for the past 18 years, I have paid the equivalent of £48,211.20 and £73,224 respectively, totalling an astounding amount of £121,468.20 over an 18 year period. That money I am required to pay in taxation does not include the £1,000 council tax, £150 TV tax, and 20% VAT that I am required to pay just to live in this country. I have no choice about whether or not to pay because the money is garnished from my wages automatically. I therefore have faithfully paid the UK government all of that money for all of those years and I honestly don’t think that when I have become ill I have received value for money.
Rhinitis
Once most of my dental work had been completed, the work the NHS dentist I had been attending on London Street either could not or would not do, or work that had been performed so badly that it had to be redone a second time at my own expense, I noticed that the chronic rhinitis that I had been plagued with for years, had finally abated. I no longer had to carry tissues with me everywhere I went so I could blow my nose, and that was a pleasant relief. I had no idea that the chronic rhinitis I suffered from was a result of the supervised neglect that my former dentist had subjected me to. Although I didn’t know it, the chronic runny nose that I had had to put up with for years was merely a symptom of just how badly decayed my teeth had become. I have no doubt that the untreated tooth decay in my mouth had a direct relationship to the frequency of ear, nose and throat infections that I seem to always be burdened with.
Swollen Face and Blocked Nose
An after-effect of my tooth decay and subsequent dental treatment is that the left side of my face is always swollen and my nostril is perpetually congested through what I believed to be nerve damage. In addition, the right side of my face is severely weakened. I don’t believe for one second that allergies are the reason for the swelling in my face because I could not even close my mouth and I don't believe that allergies will be so bad that a person cannot shut her mouth. I was also dubious about the possible explanation of a trapped nerve being the cause of the swelling, but since I have no expertise on that area, I am left with no other option but to accept what I am being told. I don’t have any confidence in the ENT specialist I saw because when I told him how much pain I was in and the fact that my face was swollen on the left side, he simply dismissed my concerns with an explanation that I suffered from allergies. He told me that I could go back if I still had problems, but when I asked my GP if I could go back to see the specialist, he refused to send me back to the hospital, saying that I had allergies.
Chest Infection
In August 2011, four months after I had the gynaecological operation where they removed two large tumours and scrapped the inside of my womb, I acquired a chest infection that caused me a great deal of concern. Because the IUS gave me pelvic inflammatory disease and I did not want another one, I had been taking the mini-pill following the operation because I did not want to start bleeding again. The mini-pill is not without its side effects however, such as water retention, weight gain, ovarian cysts, blood clots, heart disease and cancer. One has to weigh the pros and cons of taking any medication, and following my second gynaecological operation and at the time, I felt the benefits outweighed the risks. The chest infection, combined with the fact that I had gained far too much weight because of the effect of the medication had on my body, caused me to rethink my decision to take the steroids. I didn’t want to have a heart attack, stroke or acquire breast cancer, so I decided to discontinue the use of the mini-pill, and this has therefore left me vulnerable to haemorrhaging once again.
Repetitive Strain Injury
Oddly enough, it was when I was on my laptop typing that I realised that my left hand had been firmly pressed onto the base of my laptop, and my hand staying in that difficult position was causing my shoulder and jaw pain. Because so much of my work revolves around typing on a keyboard, my left hand being the dominant hand in this instance, and I had unknowingly given myself a repetitive strain injury (RSI). Therefore, my GP, who told me he believed my should and neck pain were musculo-skeletal and possibly a trapped nerve, may have been at least partly correct in this instance. I can’t quit my job, although I have no doubt that other people would in similar circumstances, I have made the decision that I must make the conscious effort to keep my hands away from the keyboard and desktop when typing, but having them lifted up above the keyboard as much as possible, thereby reducing the pain I feel from the RSI.
Jaw Dislocation
I also noticed that my left jaw is askew, which is no doubt the result of losing teeth, having implants, and far too many root canals and crowns. I therefore have to make a conscious effort to ensure that my jaw is properly seated, and not overuse my left hand in the hope that my bite will settle down and return to normal, and hopefully symmetry will be returned to my face. It was later discovered by me that this asymmetry was caused by something else, but this will be revealed later in my story. I have also found that wearing my splint actually exacerbates my dental pain because the splint causes my lower jaw to clinch up on the splint whilst sleeping, thereby causing a great deal of pain and exacerbating the dental sensitivity that I suffer from every single day in my life, thanks to the NHS dentist I was registered at.
Weight Gain
One thing that deeply troubled me was the fact that soon after I had the gynecological operation was the fact that I had gained about 3 stone in a matter of a month or two. I just could not understand how I could gain that much weight in such a short amount of time and when I saw the GP for my gynecological complaints I mentioned that I had gained so much weight. No one bothered to investigate why I had gained so much weight and I tought it was somethinig to do with the mini-pill that I had been put on. The mini-pill certainly didn't help and when I went off of it I felt slightly better because my breasts had stopped hurting so much, but I just could not understand why my stomach was so distended. I put my huge stomach down to middle age spread and was so ashamed for anyone to look at me, hoping that it would not get much bigger. Of course, at that time I didn't know that a huge bulk of the weight gain was down to the fact that my body had lost its ability to removed infection, so all of that infection was just swarming around in my body, forming a huge pool. I also believe that the pain I experienced in my pelvis was down to the infection in my body because whenever I touched my stomach it felt tender and red. I just could not understand why I had such a huge stomach, so huge in fact that I had to go out and buy all new clothes. I was not the only one who noticed the I had a wide girth either because quite a few people actually came up to me and asked me if I was expecting.
An Obvious Conflict of Interest
Also in August 2011 I received a letter from the dental practice on London Street that had neglected my teeth. Apparently the dentist had been on holiday and was going to investigate my complaint. What was there to investigate? My dental records should speak for themselves and to allow the dental surgery that allowed my teeth to get into such a terrible condition investigate my complaint is laughable. If these people were so inept that they ignored the obvious decay and resulting infection in my mouth, what is to stop them from falsifying my medical records, which is what I later learned they had actually done. Of course my former dental practice didn’t admit to any liability and to allow them to investigate my complaint is clearly not right, considering the fact they were the ones being complained about. What the West Berkshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) should have done was to say nothing and request my dental records from my former and present dental practice and ask an independent third party to conduct the investigation instead of telling The NHS dentist I was registered at so they could attempt to cover their tracks, which I later found out is exactly what they did.
Whitewashes and Cover-Ups
In September 2011 I received a letter from the PCT saying that they had conducted an investigation into my complaint and had made the decision that my former dental practice had not been negligent. The problem was that the PCT had told the dental practice that I had made a complaint of negligence against them when they had requested my dental records, thereby giving the practice plenty of time to doctor my records and remove pages before handing them over.
The dental practice had made a number of statements in their rebuttal that I did not agree and just a small selection of them follow:-
1. They said they had seen me on an emergency basis and I do not know when that was because when my mouth was very badly abscessed in a minimum of five teeth, I phoned the practice and begged to see them and they made me wait an entire day to attend the appointment that I had scheduled a week previously. I do not know, therefore, what emergency appointment the practice was referring to because I do not recall every seeing them at any time on any emergency basis. If I did see them at short notice it was only because they were free, but they certainly never made any special time for me.
2. The dental practice on London Street also said that my teeth had rapidly deteriorated because I had been drinking a high sugar tea. That statement was categorically untrue because I would never routinely drink any sugary drink, the reason being that I have polycystic ovarian syndrome, which is closely related to diabetes. Because of my medical condition I am required to keep the sugar in my diet to a minimum preferring to maintain a low calorie diet.
3. Thirdly, the dental practice said they had agreed an action plan for my dental care. What they failed to note was exactly what that action plan consisted of. The action plan I was given was to brush my teeth with a calcium toothpaste and to eat cheese. There was no mention whatsoever about the fact that my immune system does not have the ability to remove plaque from my teeth, which is what caused the dental decay along with the perfect bacteria breeding ground left in my mouth by Mr Green in the first place. The action plan failed to note that I needed to have my teeth professionally cleaned every three months, I needed to use a toothbrush, and I needed to use interdental sticks as well as dental floss. The action plan, therefore, was inadequate to my needs and I feel that is why the specifics of the action plan had been omitted from my records.
I was disappointed but not surprised that my complaint had been totally whitewashed by the PCT. I knew that the NHS would never admit any liability for the condition my teeth were in when I went to see Dr Dark in agony because they would open themselves up to litigation. I would like to add that the dental practice may not have been negligent, according to the NHS’s criteria, but they certainly didn’t perform dentistry in the standard expected of a modern, civilised country. They were certainly not working to 20th century dentistry, and perhaps not even 19th century dentistry for that matter.
The letter from the PCT concluded by stating that the dental surgery that had been responsible for my very nearly losing all of my back teeth, were happy to refer me to the hospital to have my jaw examined. This is the hospital that I had previously gone to and had told me not to talk when I told the dentist that it hurts when I talk. That dentist, supposedly a specialist, made no efforts to investigate the source of my pain, not even bothering to check if I had any cracked or broken teeth, which would not show up on an x-ray. He also never told me to speak to my GP about my facial pain because it may not have been a dental matter. Did the dental practice on London Street and the dentist at the Royal Berkshire Hospital honestly think I wanted to see them ever again after the shabby way they treated me?
The Tumours Within Me Returned – and Larger Than Before the Operation
In October 2011 I had another ultrasound of my womb and ovaries because of the very severe pelvic and abdominal pain that I had been having for the past three months. It was during this ultrasound I was advised the operation that I had had in April 2011 had not been a success. There were several tumours inside and outside of my womb and the technician could not say if they had not been removed during the operation or if they had regrown, which may be the case. The largest of the tumours inside of my womb was 4 centimetres in diameter, which he felt may have been the cause of the extreme abdominal pain over the past several months.
My GP felt the pelvic pain was caused by a cyst that was irritating my ovary, but the technician performing the ultrasound said she could find no a cyst on my ovaries or any water behind my womb, which would be a sign of one having ruptured. When I went to see my GP to discuss the results of the ultrasound, he advised me that I didn’t have two, but three fibroids, whilst only two had been removed. To my dismay, the two fibroids had grown back even larger than they had been prior to my operation and the third one had increased in size too. I was most probably unable to have periods because the fibroids were preventing me from having them and that was most likely the source of my pain.
Asthma
Also in October 2011, I began having difficulty breathing and was sent to see the asthma nurse, who had prescribed Ventolin, Beclometasone Dipropionate, and a special plastic cylindrical device to help me to receive the maximum benefits from the medication. I feel the asthma is no doubt related to my hiatial hernia, which had never been adequately treated by the NHS. Somehow the NHS expects me to take antacids for the rest of my life to control the symptoms of the hernia because they don’t want to give me an operation to repair the hernia to correct the acid reflux that no doubt contributed to the demise of my dental health. As of this writing, the medical profession, however, will take absolutely no responsibility whatsoever for the source of my facial pain and the fact that the vast majority of the teeth in my mouth are either dead or artificial, preferring to place the blame on me, saying that I didn’t take care of my teeth and I drank sugary drinks, which is not true.
Bones Left in My Jaw
Finally, at the end of October, I went to see Dr Dark for a three-month check-up, as the state of my teeth were so bad that I need frequent medical care and attention. During the check-up, I told Dr Dark that my back left tooth was painful and had been bleeding. Dr Dark took x-rays of the tooth and he advised me that when Mr Green extracted the tooth behind that tooth, he had left fragments of tooth inside of my jaw, and it was those fragments that were causing me problems.
If I recall correctly, in 2007 I went to see Mrs Red and she pulled out a tooth fragment, and I thought that had been the end of the matter. I had no idea that when Mr Green had extracted the tooth, it had been an incomplete extraction because he certainly did not tell me what he had done. In fact, Mr Green had told me that there had been no signs of infection, but how could there be no signs of infection if my face was swollen and painful? How could he see that there were no signs of infection if he hadn’t looked at the tooth? When he looked at the tooth, surely he saw that part of the tooth had broken off in my jaw. It was at that moment I realised exactly what Dr Green had done to me: that he had been negligent when he had inserted dental filling directly into my jaw because the hole in the tooth was so large and then extracted the tooth because he failed to take x-rays to find the source of my pain and failed to alternatively refer me to the hospital so they could find the source of my pain. He extracted a tooth that may well could have been saved if I had been to a competent dentist, and then he didn’t even perform a complete extraction, not telling me that he hadn’t extracted all of the tooth, leaving part of it in my jaw. As a result, the fragments of tooth had to extracted in 2007 and then again in 2011.
Statute of Limitations
When I realised what Mr Green had done, I contacted another solicitor to make a claim for clinical negligence because Mr Green had left pieces of bone inside of my jaw, but the solicitor said they were not going to pursue any claim because the first pieces of bone had been extracted from my jaw in 2007 and the three year statute of limitations had expired. I was disappointed but not surprised because personal injury solicitors are only vocationally qualified practitioners who are in the business of making money, and if a case has an element of risk and might not make them any money it is not in their interest to pursue it even if it is for altruistic reasons. Any award I received would not have been great because the UK does not as a rule award punitive damages, and it is highly unlikely that any settlement I received would even make a dent in the enormous debt I had incurred trying to save my teeth that had been irrevocably damaged by neglect while I was a patient at the NHS dentist on London Street. I also surmised that perhaps it was far better not to pursue my complaint via litigation because if the NHS had found out I had pursued a claim for clinical negligence they would probably strike me off their register and give me even worse care than I was already receiving.
Dental Surgery to Remove the Bones Left in My Jaw
In November 2011, however, when I had to have dental surgery to remove the bone that was irritating my mouth and causing an infection, I had different ideas. The piece of bone I saw was not a fragment, as I had originally assumed, but an entire root. Jewel, the dental nurse, told me that Dr Dark had removed a lot more bone and fragments than that one piece, but she had wiped them away with a tissue. I was shocked to actually see what Mr Green had left inside of my jaw because there was absolutely no way he could not see that he had not extracted the entire tooth, leaving one, possibly two, roots inside of my jaw, never saying even one word to me about what he had done. In fact, he told me there were no signs of infection, so he must have looked at his handiwork. I am particularly upset about what Mr Green had done because he went far beyond negligence, he failed in his duty of care. Mr Green may very well say that he was only doing as I had asked, but I was the patient and he was the dentist, and he should have been trying to save my teeth instead of making money from the NHS and just having a quiet life.
Even after I had the operation to remove the bone that Mr Green had left in my jaw, it was still nevertheless painful and I still continued to have fevers every day and trouble speaking, eating and opening my mouth. Since nobody was willing to help me with my swollen face I was very self conscious appearance and some of my less critical friends reassured me that I didn't look that bad, while some of the nastier people would say that yes they could see it too. I knew it was not normal to have the left side of my face swollen and bulky and the right side of my face smoother, but the ENT specialist said my problems were allergies, and even when I challenged him and my GP, they still refused to performe other investigations to find out the source of the problem. I do feel that if the ENT specialist had gone inside my head and actually took a sample and biopsied it then maybe they would have had a better idea of what the problem was. As I was to find out, a visual inspection alone was not going to provide me with an adequate diagnosis.
The one thing that I continued to notice ever since it was discovered that I was a victim of extreme dental negligence was the fact that the inside of my left cheek was flaming red while the right side was much paler in nature. I was very concerned about this and brought up the weakness in the right side of my body to my GP several times. Although he had run tests to see if there was any muscle wasting, he nevertheless neglected to investigate the fact that the left side of my face was swollen and I was afraid to ask again after I had been told that I had allergies and I was not being referred back to the ENT specialist for further tests.
Support?
There have been times when I have been in so much pain and have been bleeding so profusely that I really should not have been at work, but because I could not afford not to work, I would go into the office every day with a day’s supply of painkillers and sanitary napkins to help me make it through the day. The only person who expressed even the slightest bit of concern about all of the pain medication that I was taking was the lady who supervised the canteen at my place of work when she noticed how much medication I was purchasing. Other than that, most of my colleagues just didn’t care how much pain I was in and how ill I was, and that is a sad reflection of the company I worked for at the time all of this was going on.
Throughout my entire medical ordeal regarding my health I have received little, if any, support from my employer. For example, when I was working as a Patients Advice and Liaison Servicde (PALS) Coordinator at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, I was told that if I took time off to take care of my health concerns I would be dismissed from my position. I was totally dismayed that a medical establishment would behave in such a way. Therefore, if I needed to take time off work to take care of my medical problems, I was unable to do so. I would at this point like to reiterate that it was an employee of the NHS who threatened to dismiss me if I took time off of work to attend medical appointments that had been made for me.
When it was discovered that my teeth were very severely decayed and were the cause of my headaches and facial pain, I went to the company nurse and asked if the company could help me in any way, and she replied negatively. I am particularly offended by this because I personally know people in the company with physical and mental health problems who are given lots of time off work, counselling, physiotherapy, reduced hours, and any other support they need so they don’t allow themselves to become too stressed. Since my problem was that my teeth were deficient, however, my employer was not willing to do anything to assist me and I was required to bear the full burden of the cost of correcting the problem with the NHS dental practice’s neglect on my own, which has amounted to about a year’s salary. To add insult to injury, this nurse, who I do not believe is trained in dentistry, had the audacity to tell me that my teeth looked good to her and perhaps I should speak to my manager and tell him that I cannot tolerate stress. I found her response to be totally unhelpful.
Toxic Colleagues
A couple of weeks before I was due to have my gynaecological operation two of my colleagues had incorrectly assumed that I was having to take time off work for my teeth, so they decided to make callous jokes right in front of me, saying they were going off sick because they had bad teeth and they had a tooth ache. I was quite offended by these so-called professionals behaviour and if they ever had dental/facial pain they would not be making jokes like that, because one type of facial pain, trigamenial neuralgia, actually drives some people to suicide. The fact of the matter is that I only took one day off sick from my teeth, and that was in November 2010 when I had come back from the US and I was unable to get an emergency dental appointment with a NHS dentist and the infection had gone through my mouth into my entire head. Other than that, all of the dental appointments I went to I went on my own time, going on Saturdays, lunch times, flex days, or leave. Therefore, for so-called Christians to make those kinds of jokes about me, not even bothering to do it behind my back, was a pretty rude thing to do by people who considered themselves to be middle class and of a better class than me. They may have seen themselves as being a cut above the average man, but in reality they were as common as muck.
Because I had to go to so many dental appointments, everyone at my place of work knew that I was away because of my teeth, and the general consensus was that I deserved it because I didn’t take proper care of my teeth, which was not true. I took the best care of my teeth that I knew how to take care of them, but my teeth needed specialist care that the NHS dental practice I was registered at could not or would not give me. A taxation manager even had the audacity to joke and say that he would bring in a pair of pliers and pull my teeth out for me. It is amazing really to think that people who see themselves as being so modern and sophisticated are actually quite abhorrent in the uncompassionate way they treat people. Apparently he and everyone else in my company seemed to think it was such a big joke that I was in total agony and was actually contemplating having my teeth pulled to just relieve the pain. Having teeth pulled is the easy option, the hard option is to have root canals and suffer through them because even root canals do not prevent bacteria from entering the mouth and are no substitute for living, healthy teeth.
Misguided Acquaintances
Even people I was friendly with at work would make comments about my health. One person, who is not without her own psychological problems because she suffers from a gender identity disorder, told me that there was nothing wrong with me, all I needed was to go on a hike or go to the gym. I am not trying to be mean about this person, but since she does not have any female reproductive organs and her male reproductive organs have been surgically removed, she had no idea what she was talking about when she said there was nothing wrong with me. The gym jibe was a comment about my weight because since I became ill I have gained a lot of weight and I needed to buy new clothes because I could not fit into my old wardrobe. The vast majority of the weight gain was caused by the hormones I was required to take to keep me from haemorrhaging so I could leave the flat I live in, but I will admit that I was feeling so unwell that I did resort to a bit of comfort eating, just out of sheer anguish from the enormity of my medical problems.
Verbal Abuse
And finally, two work days before I was due to have my second gynaecological operation, a very senior business manager, Violet, in a totally unprovoked verbal attack, told me that I was having to go into hospital because I was old, and when I attempted to explain my situation in defence, she told me she didn’t want to get involved and walked off, leaving me in utter shock. I found her behaviour to be quite distressing because aside from the fact she is older than me, she made me feel as if there was some deficiency in myself and it was my fault that I had to go into hospital. At this time I was anaemic and was having to take iron tablets three times a day, as well as tranexamic acid and progesterone to stop me from haemorrhaging just so I could leave my flat and go to work, and I was extremely worried that the tumours that were being removed were malignant and I would be required to have a hysterectomy, so I found Violet’s comments to be unhelpful at the very best and malicious at worst.
I would also like to say that when I had complained to my Human Resource Department about Violet’s bullying two years earlier when I had to start working with her, and I was advised that she was no bully, but simply doing her job. On one occasion Violet was so nasty to me by giving me so much work that I could not possibly do it all and she scheduled one and a half hour meetings every day that I had no time to prepare for, and then when we had the meetings she would go through a 150 line spreadsheet line by line and expect me to tell her what the status of each line was from memory in front of a group of other managers. At one point when I said I thought Human Resources (HR) needed to be attending the meetings, she was so nasty that she threw a file of papers down on the desk, saying that HR was not going to get the work done and I was so upset that I had to leave the meeting, and Violet called me unprofessional when I reached the door. I went back and continued the meeting, but not before Violet went and complained about me to the department director, and nothing whatsoever was said to her about her behaviour towards me in front of a meeting with other managers in the company. On another occasion Violet came to my desk and told me that I was a “glass half empty” kind of person while she was a “glass half full” kind of person. The last time Violet went on holiday, I tried to be friendly to her because we had to work together, so I asked her where she was going, and she told me, “You are going to be so jealous…….”. I don’t recall where it was she said she was going because I was just so surprised that she would go on a holiday just to make people jealous, me in particular, and not because she actually wanted to go there and have a good time.
So you see, that was the environment I was forced to work in, so is it any wonder all of my teeth deteriorated due to stress. Violet would pick at me and belittle me every chance she got, trying to turn my job into an administrative position so she could manage it, but my job was not administrative, but coordinative. In addition, Violet was not able to manage people, that is, unless the company wants to enter into an industrial tribunal. What I find to be totally astonishing is that I was told by another lady at work that Violet had to have major surgery, so she of all people should have known what it was like to be ill. The fact of the matter is that Violet belittled me in such an awful way because I was required to work with her but not for her, and she had been bullying me for two years. When I complained about her behaviour I was told that she had not done anything wrong and she was not just doing her job. Since Violet had been allowed to speak to me any way she liked in a professional capacity with relative impunity, she had decided to take her bullying up a notch and make it personal, since the totally unbelievable statement to me that I had to go into hospital because I was old. If that had in fact been the case, I would not have needed an operation because I would have already have entered into menopause and the problem would have resolved itself.
The knock-on effect of Violet’s insensitive statements (but she was not the only one to say mean things to me) was that I began crying at work and had to go and speak to HR. The outcome of that is that people at work don’t want to speak to me. I have been shunned by many of my colleagues, and that upsets me greatly because all my life I have followed the rules and done what was expected of me. I tried my best to care for myself and others and it was the people who were supposed to be looking after my health, not me, that caused this to happen.
After I Reported the Practice for Negligence They Bought New Equipment to Cover Their Tracks
It was in the autumn of 2011 that I spoke to a colleague at my place of work and she told me she was receiving dental treatment at the NHS dentist I was registered at. I asked her please not to go, telling her that there are other NHS dentists in Reading that she could go to, and I didn’t want those people to harm her the way that they harmed me. It was at that time that I was in total dismay to learn that the dental practice had gone out and purchased all new equipment and were no longer pulling teeth, but giving crowns, root canals and implants. I was gob smacked, speechless in fact, to receive this piece of information. Personally, I feel that it is no coincidence that the NHS dentist I was registered at decided to clean up their act at the same time I made a complaint against them.
Pages Removed From My Dental Records
In January 2012, at the advice of Action Against Medical Accidents (AVMA), I obtained my dental records from the NHS dentist I was registered at. They initially did not want to give me my records so I had to call the PCT to complain, but in the end they said they would give me my records free of charge. It took me a couple of days to actually open my records, but when I did, total shock was an understatement to how I felt when I discovered that someone, Mr Green presumably, had removed all pages referring to his treatment, or should I say maltreatment. This discovery angered me because the PCT had written me two letters saying that the dental practice in question had not been negligent, but how could they make such a declaration when my dental records were not even complete? Didn’t anyone even check my dental records and note that entire years were missing from them?
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
The following day I spoke to the Ombudsman and I was informed that the West Berkshire PCT had only sent my dental records from 2009 onwards, stating the rest “were not relevant”. I was also informed that the dental records sent from the NHS dentist I was registered at had gaps of several years in them with a letter, which was a complete work of fiction, from Mr Green, stating that complete years were missing in my records because I had been living in the US!
Failed Implant
In February 2012 I went to see Dr Dark to have my final implant and he cut into my gum and jaw, only to find that my bone was too soft and not of a good enough quality to put material in it to stimulate growth. Therefore, I had been cut open and drilled into, stitched up, and given antibiotics to take because my bone was so soft that he had actually drilled into my sinus cavity. Therefore, it looks as if I will never be given a new tooth to replace the one that Mr Green took. A friend told me to let it go, but I can’t let it go because I really do miss that tooth and yearn for it with my entire being. I had been so looking forward to having the tooth replaced, but it looks as if it is not going to happen and it was just a pipe dream.
Vitamins
Interestingly enough, it was Mrs Hue at the LSD Surgery who told me that I didn’t need to take vitamins unless there was a deficiency in my diet, and then I was only supposed to take vitamins for a short time. If she had not suggested to me that I did not need vitamins then I would have in all probability continued taking calcium, and my bones and teeth would not have deteriorated so rapidly. When I discovered that I have soft bones I conducted an investigation into the matter and it was then that I discovered one group of people who are at risk of developing soft bones are those people who have celiac disease. Although I had never been given the diagnosis of celiac disease, I was nevertheless advised not to eat gluten, so why then did the doctors who I consulted not check me for other conditions that affect people who suffer from gluten and lactose intolerance? Why did they allow the minerals in my body to become so depleted that the bone and muscle in my body had become so visibly weakened to the point that I was unable to have the one thing that I had been missing for eight years restored? If I had been told not to eat gluten, a request that is an almost impossible task in the West because gluten is put in almost every commercially manufactured food, why wasn’t I also told that I needed to take other precautions, such as ensuring that I took vitamin supplements to replace the nutrients that had been lost because of my body’s inability to absorb them? Who knows if Dr Hue had dissuaded me from taking vitamins what the state of my teeth and bones would be four years later. It could be possible that my bones would not have weakened to the point where I could get the dental implant that I wanted. I wonder exactly what the NHS was going to do, wait until I broke a bone before they gave me a diagnosis of soft bones?
What I find to be very upsetting is that I don’t recall the doctors performing any bone density tests on me, the last such test being given to me in 2006 when I was told then that I suffered from low calcium. When I had anaemia that was so severe that I needed a blood transfusion it should have been apparent to the doctors overseeing my care that I was not absorbing adequate nutrients, so that should have been an opportune time for them to advise me on the need to take nutritional supplements.
A New Splint
In March 2012 I received my new splint and it was completely different from the one I had been given by the NHS dentist I was registered at. The plastic in the new one was much harder than the plastic in my old splint. On closer examination of my old splint, I noticed that I had almost bitten completely through it so it was virtually useless in correcting my TMJ disorder. During my visit it was also discovered that there was decay in another tooth in again a very hard to find place.
Failings in My Treatment
In April 2012 I received a letter from the Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman who investigated my complaint against the NHS dentist I was registered at. They said that they had carried out a detailed assessment and said there are indications of some failings in respect of the dental treatment I had received, but they did not consider that those failings resulted in the deterioration of the condition of my teeth or caused the bacteria that resulted in my body being unable to fight infection. They attributed the sudden decline in my oral health to the as of yet undiagnosed condition that is similar to celiac disease. In 2009 I had become a high caries risk patient and the European guidance on the frequency of x-rays recommended that bitewing x-rays were taken every six months, and I never received them. The NHS dentist I was registered at did not however feel that bitewing x-rays would have provided additional information because the practice already knew that I had poor oral health.
So there you have it. The NHS dentist I was registered at failed in their duty of care to me by not giving me bitewing x-rays to ascertain the decay in my mouth, but they nevertheless feel that this did not contribute to the decline in my dental health. It is also worth noting that the x-rays did no good since the NHS dentist I was registered at were not prepared to do anything to actually save my teeth. What they did do however was because they didn’t use x-rays they had no idea of knowing how badly decayed my teeth were, was to cause me a great deal of unnecessary pain, suffering and expense because every bit of their substandard work, which I paid for, had to be reperformed by a specialist at great personal expense to myself.
So in essence, even though the fact that the NHS dentist I was registered at did not perform x-rays on my teeth on any kind of regular basis it did not affect the deterioration of my oral heath. I do feel however that the fact that the NHS dentist I was registered at only performed very antiquated, outdated techniques did have an impact on my teeth. For instance, if in 2009 they knew that I was at high risk of caries then why didn’t they tell me to make an appointment regularly to have my teeth cleaned? Why didn’t they put crowns on my damaged teeth? Why where they only interested in filling and extracting my teeth, and nothing else?
Money Grubbing
I recently saw a television documentary about the poor dental care the NHS dentists give their patients and in this documentary it was mentioned that the reason why the NHS dentists opt to extract teeth rather than preserve them is because they are paid the same amount of money to extract teeth that they are paid to root canal them, thereby giving them no incentive to practice any kind of preventative medicine.
Fraudulent and Deceptive Practices
I feel the NHS dentist I was registered at were little better than fraudsters because they put a sign on their door calling themselves dentists, but their practices and techniques were simply not up to any kind of modern standards because they didn’t use adequate materials, equipment or procedures. I went to a NHS dentist because I trusted that they would provide the same quality of service as a private dentist and I paid very dearly for that misunderstanding.
The NHS dentist I was registered at was able to lie their way out of taking responsibility for their supervised negligence by saying I drank high sugar tea, and that simply is not true, as I have always had sweetener with my tea. Nothing was said however about the fact that they gave me a splint made of soft plastic and they never told me that I needed to have it periodically checked and replaced. Nothing was said about the fact that they gave me very deep fillings when root canals were actually more appropriate treatment, and nothing was said about the fact that they never offered me any crowns on my damaged teeth.
Supervised Negligence
If the NHS dentist I was registered at was not guilty of supervised negligence then I didn’t know what the NHS considers to be negligence. Apparently I am supposed to be made to believe that the NHS has such incredibly low standards of dentistry that its techniques and practices are little better than those of the local barber who extracted teeth as a sideline only a century or so ago. I would strongly advise anyone who wishes to keep their teeth to run, not walk, away from any NHS Dental Practice they happen to come across.
Coughing Fits
In early 2012 I was plagued with coughing fits, swollen glands, and an infected face. I had the infected face for so long that I had forgotten what it was like to have a normal face. At one time I had wanted to get a PGCE and teach mathematics, but any kind of long-term speaking positions were something I would never be able to do because I was in so much facial pain. Since the ENT specialist at Royal Berkshire Hospital had written a letter to my GP saying that I suffered from allergies, they refused to entertain the possibility that there could be anything else wrong with me, and I was made to feel that I had psychological problems when I went to my GP and complained of all of the pain in my body. Therefore I stopped visiting the GP because I knew that I had been written off as a lunatic and no investigations would be made about the matter of my further deteriorating health. My GP and the RBH had already decided that my health problems were hysterical in nature so they saw no need to further pursue them. When the coughing fits became so bad that I had a painful bruise on my neck I went to see my GP again about that matter. He advised me that I had ruptured a blood vessel but it was perfectly normal and nothing to worry about. Again, no investigations were ever made about this matter either.
Ruptured Artery
In late April 2012 I went to see my GP at my NHS Walk-In Centre in Reading and showed him the bruise on my neck. I was told that I had ruptured an artery but it was completely “normal” and he was not prepared to investiate the matter. How can rupturing an artery be normal? It is a fact that for the past year and a half I had severe problems with pain and numbness on the left side of my body, shortly after I had started taking HRT and the mini pill in fact. One of the side effects HRT and the mini pill is thrombosis, or blood clots. Therefore, considering the fact that I had such pain and numbness on the left side of my body I feel that I had a clot in the artery, which is what caused the artery to rupture when I had a very bad cold, and I feel that this was anything but normal. I consider myself lucky that the artery that ruptured was in my neck because it could have been far worse: the artery could have ruptured in my brain, heart or lung.
The Tumours in My Body Had Shrunk
In May 2012 I went to the Royal Berkshire Hospital with the intention of being given the okay for a hysterectomy because I had suffered from such severe pelvic pain following my second gynaecological operation in April 2011. When I saw the consultant, I was advised that all of the fibroids in my womb had shrunk down and the largest one was now only the size of a grape!
I personally feel that I was in such pain because I had acquired a pelvic infection, as I had never known such paid from a menstrual cycle in my life. I also attribute the pelvic infection and other gynaecological problems to my dental problems because there was just so much bacteria in my mouth that my immune system was trying to combat, it simply did not have the strength to fight the other infections that prevailed within my body.
I also feel the appalling dentistry that I was subjected to at the NHS dentist I was registered at triggered my autoimmune illness because my twin sister and no other members of my family suffer from this malady. No person in my family other than myself has to live on a special diet, and I think it is worth nothing that they never utilised the services of a NHS dentist, and this simply cannot be a mere coincidence.
Summary
Every story has to have an ending, and while I still suffer from health problems caused by the dentists at the NHS dentist I was registered at, my gynaecological problems have been resolved and have brought an end to at least one phase of my ill health. I can’t do any more than I already have done, having spent more than a year’s salary and more than a year and a half in a specialist endodontist’s treatment room, going through all manner of pain and suffering that many people have committed suicide over. I have finally resolved my dental problems as much as I possibly can, no thanks to the NHS and the dentists at The NHS dentist I was registered at.
I will forever be scarred by what the supervised neglect and mistreatment I received at dental practice, both mentally and physically, because my teeth, gums and mouth will never be the same as a healthy person’s. It amazes me, really, that a modern country like England allows dentists working under them to practice using appalling standards of care and truly antiquated techniques that are not even up to 20th century, much less 21st century, grade. Although I didn’t realise it until I received my incomplete dental records from The NHS dentist I was registered at, but they actually had me listed as a private patient. How in God’s name can any kind of dental practice that uses such crude and primitive methods take on patients privately? How on Earth did this practice pass through the net and were never highlighted by the West Berkshire PCT that they were extremely deficient in their skills, training and methods? Why did the West Berkshire PCT whitewash and cover up the investigation when I complained about the worst dental practice in Berkshire, and perhaps the whole of England?
I although my dental health will never really recover from what was done to me by the dentists at the NHS dentist I was registered at, I have written my story in the hopes that people will read it and benefit from my experience, and hopefully not go to that dental practice and if possible not even to use a NHS dentist at all.
Because of what the NHS dentist I was registered at did to me, I will never be totally healthy, but below is a summary of the outcome of my health problems and their resolution:-
My career is in tatters because of the very long episode of ill health I experienced has meant that no business will take me seriously or has any confidence in my ability to perform any kind of demanding or enduring job.
I received no support from my employers when I was seriously ill, as I was required to attend medical appointments on my own time. Contrary to what my colleagues may have thought, I only took one sick day due to my dental problems, one sick day due to the flu, one sick day due to my gastrointestinal problems, a week when I had my first gynaecological operation, and two weeks when I had my second gynaecological operation. The rest of the time that I needed to have extensive dental, medical and hospital treatment I either took leave or flex time and made up all of the time. On one occasion, after my first gynaecological operation and they had made three incisions into my abdomen, and I had acquired a very serious infection, the HR department at my work actually phoned me and asked me when I was coming back to work!
I received no support from my colleagues, who were in fact rather unhelpful at times. Because these individuals are psychologically damaged themselves, they made many inappropriate and uncalled for comments concerning my state of health, which I found to be quite hurtful considering the fact that I was trying my best to go into work when I was in dreadful pain and discomfort, and at times was very weak from blood loss.
- A senior commercial business manager told me the reason why I was having to go into hospital was because I was old, and when I attempted to defend myself she made faces at me telling me it was best not to get involved, and then walked off, leaving me in shock.
- A senior estimator joked to other colleagues saying that she was going to go off sick because she had bad teeth when the fact was that I took a grand total of one day off work as sickness due to my teeth, and that is because the dental infection had spread into my bloodstream and was travelling throughout my body, and was even encroaching upon my brain.
- Another colleague lied and said her teeth were perfect and they weren’t going to go bad because she took care of them, and I later found out that she had had extensive dental work in the past and was continuing to have dental work performed.
- A tax manager laughed and said he would take a pair of pliers out and pull my teeth if I liked.
My acquaintances were not very understanding of my health problems either:-
- One man who wanted to have a romance with me, at work only, told me that he didn’t understand why I was so ill because I looked fine to him, the inference being that my problems were mental and not physical.
- A transsexual who had not been born with any female reproductive organs told me that the only thing wrong with me was that I needed to go to the gym and work out and that I needed to go on a hike. I found her comments to be quite insidious because, never having had a period herself, she didn’t have any idea in the world what real women go though. The fact is that she was just playing at being a woman, wearing make-up and having extensive cosmetic surgery to make her have a few female attributes, so she simply didn’t know what she was talking about.
My relationships suffered because my partner at the time had to take me to the A&E department of the hospital on several occasions and I don’t believe he honestly thought anything was wrong with me either, other than psychiatric problems that is.
Because I had been weakened by the as yet undiagnosed condition that resembles celiac disease, there have been a few men who would take advantage of my lack of strength. One of the men who harmed me was actually the cause of me having to have my first gynaecological operation.
The NHS dentist I was registered at was never made to take responsibility for the harm and supervised neglect they inflicted on me and perhaps others. West Berkshire PCT refused to assist me in obtaining the pages that had been removed from my dental records and they refused to obtain any information I needed, which I was entitled to under the Freedom of Information Act. The Information Commissioner refused to progress my grievance against the NHS dentist I was registered at even though I was able to provide bank statements giving evidence that I had paid the practice money for treatment.
My mouth will never be the same. I have one implant and the gum around the implant is very tender. I have one tooth that I will never get back because I am unable to get an implant in that place. I have lost count of the number of root canals and crowns I have, and I have been told that I have holes in every tooth in my head. Because root canalled teeth are not the same as living teeth, I am constantly plagued with colds, flu, sinus infections, headaches, asthma, ulcers, and any other infections that might find their way to me. I also have earaches, headaches and TMJ disorder.
The absolute only change that I ever made to my life, other than the dietary changes that had been forced on me, was to stop colouring my hair. The last time I coloured my hair was in November or December 2011, about two months after I had been given the news that my fibroids had significantly grown. I had not stopped colouring my hair for any health reasons, but for vanity. Chemically treated hair becomes damaged and it is obvious to all when hair is treated because it is so dry and brittle. I made the decision that grey hair must look better than chemically treated hair, so I stopped colouring it. After I received the good news that my fertility had been restored, I wondered how on Earth such a transformation in my reproductive health could occur and I noticed that the only significant change I had made to my life was to stop colouring my hair, and I deduced that it must have had a contributory factor in the restoration in my reproductive health. When I researched hair colouring, I discovered that the chemicals in the compounds are linked to liver disease, which I have had, and cancer.
Christian Science
Finally, not long after I discovered what the dentists at the NHS dentist I was registered at had done to me, I began attending a Christian Science church in Reading. I found the people there to be very nice and loving, which was a sharp contrast to the people who I met at work and through my relationships. Christian Scientists study the Bible and writings of Mary Baker Eddy, who was said to have been healed and healed others through prayer. Although I only attended the services and never requested prayer from a Christian Science Practitioner, I cannot discount the possibility that the simple words and pure thoughts of the Christian Scientists and others who attended the services had a positive effect on my reproductive health.
To be told in 2009 that my ovaries were difficult to find on the ultrasound because they were no longer active, and then in 2010 that my pituitary gland was producing more growth hormone to stimulate me to ovulate because I was approaching menopause, in 2011 having to have an operation to remove two huge tumours in my womb, and then in 2012 to go to the gynaecologist and be told at that consultation that my ovaries are now full of eggs and they could see for themselves from the ultrasound machine that I was getting ready to ovulate and the huge tumours had all shrunk down, with the largest one being the size of a grape, was a pleasant surprise indeed.
Although this paper intended to highlight what the NHS dentist on London Street did to me and a statement of how much I suffered at their hands, it is also one of endurance, patience, and I can ultimately serve as a testimony that……
Sometimes……
Just Sometimes…….
Miracles can occur
Afterward
Laughing Fits
For some reason I always seemed to be laughing, giggling and talking to myself. I lived alone so it was not a problem for me as at least I could laugh at the funny things that people said on television, and I would tend to repeat them to myself over and over because I thought it was so funny. At time time I could not understand why I was always laughing because I never laughed like that in the past. A couple of rather insensitive people actually went to the trouble to ask me if I had mental health problems because I seemed to be talking to myself when I was walking home from work. Towards the end, even I was concerned about this. I didn't think it was normal for me to be laughing and giggling all the time and I wondered if I had MS or some other neurological condition. Since the CT scan and the MRI scan of my head revealed nothing, I did not know exactly what the problem was. By this time I knew not to even waste my time going to see the GP because they had made it clear to me on more than a few occasions that they believed my problems to be psycholigcal and not physical, even though they could see very clearly that my face and eye were swollen.
In addition to the laughing fits and repeating myself that personnel at my place of work certainly didn't like, I also experienced body jerks and twitches. I was concerned about this, but since I had not had a full blown seizure and I wasn't driving, I didn't want to tell the GP because they already as much as said that my problems were stress related or psychological in nature. Much of the jerking and twiching has subsided but that is only because I have lost much sensation in my body, particularly the left side. I live with constant worry that the loss of sensation will turn into paralysis, and since I am single and live alone a life of being immobile is something that I just cannot bear to think about.
Swollen Nodes
The lymph nodes in my face have always been swollen, especially under my chin. The GP prescribed me antibiotics once, but after that I was just expected to deal with the fact that they always seemed to be painful and swollen. When I mentioned to the company nurse at my place of work my painful lympn nodes, her only reply to me was that it was good if my nodes were painful and swollen because that meant they were clearing the infection from my body. I personaly didn't feel this to but I didn't want to debate the subject because I am not medically trained and she is. I therefore accepted her happy go lucky approach to my deteriorating health with the intent that it was given.
Unusual Discharges
One thing that I noticed was the fluid always seemed to be running out of my ears. I didn't know it at the time but my ears seemed to be the only place that fluid could discharge from, as I was not aware that my entire body and face had become infected. I had problems hearing and I must have spoken louder than normal so that I could hear myself speak, and I have not doubt some people didn't like it. I had complained repeatedly to the GP about my earaches and even the ENT specialist, but nothing was done. Even when blood was coming out of my nose and I brought the bloody tissues into the GP surgery to show them what was happening to me, still nothing was done, as they assured me that blood coming out of my nose was entirely normal. The wrong diagnosis of the ENT specialist at Royal Berkshire Hospital meant that the bacteria that had been inserted in my body back in 2003 was beginning to overtake me and my GP's refused to investigate the cause of my swollen face and many pains in my body based upon the letter written by the hospital that my problem was merely "allergies".
Although I was drinking plenty of fluids, my urine seemed to be dark orange and I noticed it on several occasions. I thought it was odd because I was always going to the bathroom to relieve myself. In addition to the orange urine, on a few occasions I had a gynecological discharge. All of these emissions from my body were its way of trying to dispel the bacterial infection that I was unable to shake off. I also had numerous fevers and unexpected sweating episodes, and that too was my body's attempt to try to kill the infection. My hair was always greasy and that was something I found to be quite perplexing because my hair did not used to be greasy, if anything it had been dry. My skin had also turned yellow from all of the infection in my body, which I didn't know about. I am quite surprised really that when I went to see the GP that nothing was ever said about the condition of my skin, which pretty much reflected my state of health.
The infections in my body continued to persist, but since the my GP surgery were not prepared to do anything about the fact that I always seems to have an infection and the lymph nodes in my face were always swollen and painful, I stopped going to see the GP because I felt they had already labeled me as a nutcase. The infections in my mouth and jaw seemed to increase, but a CT scan and a MRI scan revealed nothing, and I had been diagnosed as having allergies although I didn't feel this was the case. Therefore, in October 2012 I was having trouble speaking, the left side of my body was numb and tingling, and my eyebrow was paralysed. I therefore went to see my GP with a suspected stroke, and when he examined me he asked me if I had any dental treatement, and I very briefly told him of the nightmare dentist in the Reading town centre that had harmed me. It was at this point that the GP informed me that because of what this dental practice had done, the structure of the blood vessels in my body had changed and infection was no longer able to drain out of my body. The doctor wrote ran some blood tests but did not write me a prescription for any antibiotics to cure the infection that had been in my body since 2003 when Mr Green had harmed me.
The fact that my body was completely full of infection explained a lot. My body had become so puffy and swollen that I could not even cross my legs because they are so fat, and my face was so swollen that I didn't have even one wrinkle even though was already in my 50's. Because again I had been sent home with no treatment, I searched the internet to see if there were any herbs, spices or other foods that I could take to move the infection out of my body, and what I was able to learn was that ginger and pineapple reduce inflammation, cinnamon aides in stablising blood suger, kills bacteria, and makes the blood thinner, and ginsing and black pepper aide circulation. Because I had not been prescribed any medication by my GP, I was left with no other option but to begin treating myself with these foods.
Communicating
An aftermath of what has happened to me is the fact that I have difficulty speaking and pronouncing words. I also have difficulty reading, and for someone who at one time had a high intelligence quotient (IQ) I find this to be most upsetting. It is impossible for me to progress in my career if I cannot speak properly, so this disability that I have been left with has and will continue to hold me back professionally. I also have problems with my dexterity and this affects my typing ability. Because I work in an office I need to be able to type quickly to send emails and liaise with others.
Now every day is a bonus, if you can call it that, because I don't know if it is going to be the day that I will die. My life really ended on that day in 2003 when Mr Green smeared filling into my jaw and I recieved a terrible infection. This infection may have been caused by his own incompetence and unhygenic practices or the filth in the waiting room full of old magazines and used chewing gum placed on the table that the magazines where haphazardly placed. Because of what happened to me, which the dentists that I had been registered at blamed me for, I now will never know if I am going to have a stroke, a heart attack, bleed to death internally, or get meningitis. If any of these maladies ever happen to me I will be lucky if I die from them, otherwise I may very well be required to spend the rest of my days in a severely disabled, vegatative state, and that is something I truly don't want.
Hysteria
I feel that the doctors and nurses at the various medical establishments in Reading had just written my medical condition off as being hysterical. If they had not labeled me and had taken my complaints serioulsy then the infection in my body, caused by the change in structure of my blood vessels, would not have become so bad that I had very obvious stroke symptoms in early October 2012. I was very worried about what was going on with my body, but since I had been turned away so many times and looked at and spoken to like my problems were psychological I was afraid to go back to the doctor. It was when I phoned the GP and asked to make an appointment for Saturday that they noticed that I was having problems speaking that they finally took my complaints seriously, but I can assure you, the reader, that I have been sick since early spring 2003 when Mr Green infected me with bacteria from his practice.
Because the NHS has still not given me appropriate treatment, and I would like to say that I am not keen on taking steriods, I have been forced to treat myself. I have been treating myself with:-
1. Ginger for inflammation,
2. Cinnamon as an antibacterial agent and for blood thinning,
3. Black pepper to improve circulation,
4. Pineapple for inflammation,
5. Cranberry juice for inflammation.
NHS Litigation Authority
I wrote a letter to the NHS Litigation Authority making a claim for compensation for the harm that the dentists had done to me and the subsequent medical problems I have suffered as a result of their negligence, and this is the reply I received from them in January 2013:-
"..... We have made enquries in respect of the Dentists involved and confirm that none of the dentists in question are covered by Berkshire West PCT. The Dentists are contracted therefore no liability will rest with the PCT. In view of the above you will need to redirect your claim directly to the dentists involved as they will have their own insurance cover to deal with claims against them accordingly"
The letter to the NHS Litigation Authority was my last effort to obtain any kind of compensation for what was done to me and of course since the dentists removed pages from my dental records, falsified my remaining dental records, and lied and said I was in the US when I was not, the likelihood of me obtaining any kind of justice or them taking responsibility for what they did is minimal. It is also important to note that the NHS Litigation authority took a Pontis Pilate approach when they said it was nothing to do with them. If what had happened to me had been done by a legitimate business then they would have been vicariously liable for things the subcontractor did on their behalf, but since they are a government body they can just make the rules up as they go along and do as they please.
The General Dental Council's Conclusions
In September 2013 I received a letter from the General Dental Council detailing the outcome of their investigation. Because there was substantial evidence to conclude that three of the dentists who I was able to name had given me negligent treatment and my dental records had not been maintained to an acceptable standard, they were given reprimands and those reprimands will stay on their permanent files. If there are any further complaints of negligence then those dentists will be dealt with much more harshly. The dentist who had treated me for the longest, Mrs Green, was going to be further investigated because she lied and said my teeth had decayed as a result of a poor diet, which I was able to prove was not true. Upon the completion of this further investigation it will be determined if she is going to be struck off the dental register.
During the whole complaints procedure not one of the three dentists who I was able to name ever said sorry to me, but when their cases went to the General Dental Council, they finally did so. They had an opportunity to say they were sorry when I complained to the Primary Care Trust and they had another opportunity to say they were sorry when I complained to the Health Ombudsman, but it was only when they were forced to go to the General Dental Council and explain their actions that they finally said sorry in a letter. I honestly didn't know how to respond to their extremely belated apology. After all this time, sorry is not going to give me back my relationship, career and health.
It is a cold comfort indeed to be able to say I was right and they were wrong. Being right won't give me back all that I lost by being negligently treated at that dental practice in Reading.
Jail for Bad Doctors and Nurses
On 16 November 2013 I read in the Independant newspaper that the law is going to be changed to bring in prison sentences for doctors and nurses who wilfully neglect and mistreat their patients. This law is going to be along similar lines as the Mental Capacity Act 2005, which deals with medical professionals who wilfully neglect and mistreat adults who lack capacity.
It is a nice thought and I am glad that the UK government is finally going to step in and do something about the appalling state of the medical and dental profession in their land, where medical professionals are allowed to act with impunity and meet out any kind of treatment they desire, usually being inappropriate or non-treatment, but it is too late for me. My health has already been ruined by the dentists at the practice located in London Street, Reading. Every day is a struggle for me as I have suffered numerous strokes, which has resulted in the left side of my body being weakened and my communicative skills and mathematical skills being impaired.
I hope this new law will weed out the medical professionals whose heart really isn't in the job. Once doctors and nurses who are unfit to practice realise they could wind up in prison for their negligent mal-treatment of patients, they may very well decide to seek alternative employment.
Krystal Love