HUNDREDS of people a year have been attending A&E for common dental problems including toothache.

Figures obtained by the Westmorland Gazette found that patients had been admitted to emergency wards in the region to receive care for dental issues.

Toothache was the most commonly occurring dental-related admission, while many other patients have reported broken or loose teeth.

According to figures released under freedom of information laws, people visited A&E at Furness General Hospital 519 times to receive treatment for dental issues since 2016.

The figure had been rising steadily each year until a small drop last year during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Some 222 of the admissions were down to toothache.

And 2020 saw the highest number of cases of toothache at FGH with 78.

A broken tooth was the second most commonly occurring dental ailment.

People visited A&E 81 times, with 2018 seeing a peak.

There were 62 cases of bleeding teeth and 52 cases of loose teeth.

And absent teeth accounted for 48 admissions.

Twenty-five people reported bleeding gums and 22 were admitted for painful teething.

On five occasions people visited having lost teeth due to an accident on four occasions people were admitted due to a fractured tooth.

A similar story was reported in figures provided for Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

Toothache was the most commonly reported dental issue at the emergency ward that serves Kendal and other parts of south Cumbria.

A total of 271 admissions were reported since 2016.

The highest number of toothache admissions came in 2020 with 67.

A rise in admissions for the minor dental issues came with dentists closed for parts of 2020.

People who need urgent dental treatment are struggling to find any NHS treatment in all parts of England, according to Healthwatch, the independent patient watchdog.

Nine in every 10 calls to Healthwatch Cumbria are from someone trying to find an NHS dentist, the organisation said.