DRIVEN by two months of excruciating pain, a man took the drastic step of wrenching his tooth out using - a pair of pliers.

David Barr, of Reach Close, of St Margaret's, near Deal, said that at the end of July he was told by his dentist, Total Dental Care in Dover, that one of his front teeth was abscessed, two others were loose and all three would need removing.

He was given antibiotics and told the removal needed to be done at Dover's Buckland Hospital because he was taking the blood-thinning drug, Warfarin, which meant there was a risk of excessive bleeding.

But he said in two months he did not hear anything despite making three attempts to chase the referral. So he removed the front, abscessed tooth.

Mr Barr said: “I was so angry and I had had enough of putting up with constant, throbbing pain. I had no idea when I would be seen. I couldn’t chew or eat, especially bread and potatoes. This affected my diabetes as I started to have mood swings.

“I went to my toolbox and with tears in my eyes just grabbed hold of the tooth, twisted and pulled. The pliers slipped off the first time, so I put them back on, and got it out with the second attempt.”

Mr Barr was still on Warfarin when he removed his tooth and bled for an hour and a half afterwards.

Mark Hawkins, clinical services manager for head and neck services at East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust, said the treatment for an abscess was antibiotics and only once the swelling and infection went down would an extraction be considered.

He added: “It is highly unlikely the tooth would be removed. Due to patient confidentiality we are unable to go into specific details about this case.

“We have received a referral from this patient’s dentist, however if pain persists we advise that patients seek the necessary pain relief from their dentist or GP.”