A man has claimed he pulled out one of his own teeth after waiting more than 18 months to find an NHS dentist.
David Woodhouse, 62, from Truro, said he had been unable to find a NHS surgery in Cornwall.
An NHS emergency treatment centre offered to extract the tooth in December 2018 but Mr Woodhouse said that would not deal with his long-term problem with a dental plate.
Three weeks later he took out the tooth himself with a pair of pliers.
Mr Woodhouse said: "I had a loose one and it was causing me a little bit of pain, so I got the needle-nose pliers and out it came.
"I could have had the tooth extracted but what I need is a term of treatment from the dentist."
NHS England encouraged those in need of urgent dental care to contact its emergency helpline.
'Long-term pain'
The British Dental Association said NHS dental care was "increasingly a postcode lottery" with problems across the country.
Healthwatch Cornwall, the county's health watchdog, said access to NHS dentists was the number one issue people contacted them about.
View original story at https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-47010049