British War Vet Pulls 13 Of His Own Teeth Out, For Lack Of A Dentist

Mocking the Brits for bad teeth is about as sporting as kicking puppies, but this instance of bad-tooth-drama is too crazy to ignore. Ian Boynton, a 42 year old Iraq war vet, resorted to pulling 13 of his own teeth out with pliers when he couldn’t get any dentists to accept him as a patient. With delightful picture of pliers + all 13 teeth, after the jump:

Ian says that in 2006, when his teeth started to cause him pain, he tried to find a dentist but none of them accepted patients on the government’s health care plan. So he took a pair of pliers and pulled his own tooth out. Apparently it wasn’t so bad, since he did it twelve more times.

He describes it; “Amazingly, it did not hurt as much as you might think. I think I’d been prising it that much in the meantime that I’d been killing the nerve.” Shudder.

Ian says that all the publicity from his story has meant he finally found a dentist who’ll take him, but with only two teeth left in his upper jaw, it’s cold comfort.

Man pulls out 13 of his own teeth with pliers ‘because he couldn’t find an NHS dentist’ [Daily Mail]