Dentists are told to plan for treating patients again ‘in three weeks’ 

Dentists are set to reopen in phases to tackle the mounting dental problems that have arisen while surgeries were shut during lockdown.

The Government is facing calls for dentists to be a part of the second phase of lifting lockdown.

If this goes ahead, dental surgeries would reopen alongside shops, department stores and shopping centres on June 15.

MP Sir Desmond Swayne told The Daily Telegraph: ‘I can’t see why dentists were closed in the first place, and I can’t see why they can’t reopen straight away.’

Chief dental officer Sara Hurley has told dentists to be prepared for phased reopening, similar to that already seen in Scotland.

In Scotland, urgent care centres that can see dental patients will be expanding first. This will then be followed by regular dentists. 

Equipment that dispenses aerosol gases will not be used because it makes it easier for the virus to spread.

Last week it was revealed that a mother whose son, five, had a decaying molar during lockdown was told by a hospital dentist to make a make-shift filling with the red wax from a Babybel cheese.

Kate Mansey’s son Ted was left in excruciating pain after a filling became dislodged.

After a dozen calls to their usual dentists, voicemails and texts to an emergency mobile number and calls to NHS 111, the emergency clinic at a local hospital called her back.

The Government is facing calls for dentists to be a part of the second phase of lifting lockdown (stock image)

The hospital dentist explained that the red wax case of a Babybel can be used to make a filling when it is ‘cut up, rolled into a ball, mixed with saliva and fixed into the hole’.

The dentist explained that the only alternative was for Ms Mansey to asses whether Ted needed a tooth extraction under local anaesthetic. 

James Goolnik, a dentist in the City of London, said dentists are eager to return to work as more and more people are taking their dental care into their own hands or ignoring it all together, with dangerous consequences .

He said: ‘People tell me they have been using knives, nail files and trying to stick crowns back on with superglue but getting them the wrong way round.

Last week it was revealed that Kate Mansey – whose son Ted, five, (pictured together) had a decaying molar during lockdown – was told by a hospital dentist to make a make-shift filling with the red wax from a Babybel cheese

‘Then there are some who have ulcers with no idea if they have cancer. 

Unless it’s a life-threatening infection, the emergency centres won’t see them. That’s not acceptable. As dentists, we’re frustrated because we want to help but we’ve been held back. 

‘We have PPE and we can work. We have been dealing with the risk of HIV for years and lots of other viruses.’