As this tale is about DIY dentistry, it is not for the fainthearted

If you’re squeamish, look away now.

It happened because I needed a sugar fix at work on Wednesday morning. I bought a bag of wine gums. Second sweet into the bag, it felt extra crunchy! Don’t you just hate that feeling.

I knew what had happened, but initially thought it was a filling that had come out – oh no, it was the whole crown, leaving a nail sticking up. I was in a bit of a state, to say the least.

I rang my dentist, who could have fitted me in, but I was in Liverpool, and wasn’t going to be in York till Friday. My colleagues told me to try and get an appointment with the emergency dental service, so I rang NHSDirect. The dental nurse told me I wasn’t an emergency as I wasn’t in pain (never mind the fact that I could hardly talk and would have found it very difficult to eat), and advised me to get a DIY kit ‘from any chemist’.

I was a bit gobsmacked by this. I know the state of NHS dentistry is bad, but I didn’t know they were now advising you to do it yourself!

Anyhow, the kit was purchased, and I looked rather dubiously at the contents, A few cotton buds, some even more dubious liquid (‘is that glue?’), and some putty/cement. I read the instructions – it all sounded quite scary.

Eventually I plucked up the courage to have a go. As we don’t have a decent mirror in the place, or a staff room or restroom, I ended up with a mirror propped up on some boxes in a storeroom. It was hardly conducive to effective dental treatment. I soon discovered that it is incredibly difficult to ‘DIY’ – very fiddly, and you can’t see what you are doing. Eventually more by luck than judgement, I got it back in, held in with the putty.

I went to my dentist yesterday morning. I seemed to have done such a good job she had difficulty getting it out again. But I just know that in the long run this is going to be very expensive.