A 55-year-old nurse is being examined for suspected malnutrition four months after having most of her teeth extracted.

According to this story, Annette Aldridge attended an appointment at her dental practice with a loose tooth. What she wasn’t expecting was to be told that her teeth would need to be removed due to an infection. Annette was given dentures, but she said that they don’t fit properly and keep falling out of her mouth.

In the four months following her dental surgery, Annette lost two stones in weight due to not being able to eat properly, and is currently undergoing tests to determine whether she has malnutrition. She only has one molar and two front teeth remaining.

As a result of her exhaustion, Annette has felt that she has no other choice but to take early retirement. She stated:

“As a nurse I cannot function. I can’t eat during the day as I would have to take my teeth out. I can eat at night but I go to bed thinking that this is no life.

“In March I handed my notice in, as much as I don’t want to give up I can’t carry on.”

Annette has always been afraid of dentists, but she attended her practice in the summer of 2022 due to a loose tooth. This is when her dentist told her that her teeth would need to come out.

After fourteen weeks of enduring her new dentures, she went back to her practice because her dentures did not align properly and kept falling out. She learnt upon her return that the dentist who performed her extractions had left the practice.

She said: “I had a new dentist who said I would have never been suitable for this denture.

“They gave me a new set that didn’t stay in my mouth – I couldn’t even eat with them.”

Upon her return, she was given another set of dentures which cot her £300. Annette concluded that she would need implants to sort her teeth out, but she cannot afford to have them done.

“I am living on bread and eggs. I have found as long as I cut things up I can put it in my mouth as if it was a pill and swallow. There is nothing I can chew.”

“Five months in and I was absolutely exhausted. I thought ‘I cannot carry on this way’.”

She has been seeing her doctor regarding exhaustion, and meanwhile she is due another dental appointment in May. In the meantime, she has been forced to hand her notice in as a nurse of 37 years as she cannot cope with the demands of the job any more due to her extreme tiredness.

An NHS Hertfordshire and West Essex integrated Care Board spokesperson said:

“We can’t comment on an individual’s experience but we would encourage them to contact our patient experience team at the ICB directly so that we can look into their concerns.”

My two penneth

This is pretty shocking! In retrospect it’s hard to imagine how this ever happened, but in a situation where the patient trusts her dentist, she valued their professional opinion.

This seems like a pretty obvious case of incorrect procedure at the very best here – as even if the initial call to pull the teeth was correct, the follow-up treatment of providing suitable dentures was not.

I hope Annette gets the resolution she deserves by going through the ICB, and also that she manages to restabilise her health due to her currently suspected malnutrition.