Nick’s pulling teeth for people around world
Nick examines a patient and, below, outside the mobile surgery which is providing vital dental care for people in Mirfield and Dewsbury has been allowed to escalate.
“We used to see people like this before the NHS contract was changed in 2006. Pre-2006 you could turn up at an NHS dentist with a problem and they would deal with it. Now you cannot do that.
“Then you have people on low incomes that have bad teeth and they cannot afford treatment. Pain relief from toothache should be a basic service that is provided, and Dentaid’s motto is to eradicate tooth pain.”
Nick is regularly joined by fellow doctors Usman Majid, Sam Elwick, Remm Nashi, Haider Hussain, Nabeel Mughal, Adil Kasai and Jessica Talbot, plus upwards of 25 foundation dentists from the West Yorkshire Foundation Training Scheme at the Leeds Dental Institute, who receive on-thejob training.
Nick laughs when he considers why he began his charity work.
“It tends to snowball,” he says. “Each time you do a project you ask how you can do it better. A dentist cares about people being in pain.
“But if I sat in my surgery doing check-ups and fillings for the next 20 years it would drive me up the wall. It’s something to do.
“My children have been on foreign trips to help people – building schools and that sort of thing. I couldn’t do that. I have another skill that I knew I could lend to the community round here and in Africa. I’m a doer, so that’s what I do.”
Through Dentaid Nick and his colleagues visit schools to give talks on dental hygiene and to give out free tubes of toothpaste. And he says there are plans to consolidate the Dentaid mobile surgery – paid for via a £7,000 grant from the former Dewsbury and Mirfield Local Committee – by sending it out further into the community.
Nick said: “I’m more of a hub pulling other dentists into working voluntarily. It’s about giving up time. All it costs me is a bit of surgery time for the two weeks that the project is running. I’m happy to do that.”
Dentaid chief executive Andy Evans said: “By working with Dentaid, Nick is helping some of the most vulnerable people in his community access the dental care they need.
“He is committed to helping as many people as possible out of dental pain and by taking our mobile dental unit to them he’s making a huge difference. Thanks to his generosity there are many more people in Dewsbury who are no longer suffering the misery of toothache and can get on with their lives.”