Emma, a carer for her nine-year-old son, was left without an NHS dentist when Bridlington’s Bupa practice shut in November 2022.
She said: “I went in one day and they said ‘all the dentists have left’. I’ve just been left adrift really.”
Emma, who recently needed emergency treatment to remove a tooth, said she was on “a waiting list, for a waiting list” in Scarborough, which is 18 miles (29km) away.
Scarborough is the nearest place taking new NHS patients, she said.
“I know one person who rang an emergency dentist and they ended up in Doncaster,” said Emma. “I have a friend who kept her dentist in Manchester. If you move here, you just don’t let your dentist go.”
She recently found an NHS dentist in Hull for her son Dexter who is type 1 diabetic and regularly needs to drink glucose. At his first appointment, he needed five fillings.
“I was getting very anxious trying to get him in to be seen,” Emma said. “I knew it was an issue, all the glucose we use.
“It’s heartbreaking. It’s desperate that’s he’s waited until he’s nearly 10 to get a dentist.”
