“Yeah, they’re not rotten,” a middle-aged woman says, gooey, “but they’re loose.” She wiggles her front teeth back and forth one by one. “They got loose because of a gum infection and that hurt a lot.” And perhaps worst of all, she can’t afford the dental treatment needed to get rid of that pain.
And Marjolein is far from alone, as can be seen in the short 2Doc documentary Dental care (Human). There is Daniel, the patient with the most disarming smile of the bunch, who has lost all his teeth due to the use of all kinds of drugs. When he developed a terrible toothache, he decided to chew on a lot of chemicals to numb the place. That worked, for a moment, because then his teeth started to rot.
Daniel and Marjolein are entitled to a second chance, according to street dentist Didi Landman. In her Rotterdam practice, she therefore treats homeless people and other people who have no money for a dentist one afternoon a week. She already did that as a dentistry student in South Africa, when she traveled to remote areas where people couldn’t even reach the dentist, even if they had the money.
When the South African moved to the Netherlands, she was shocked by the misery she encountered ‘in a rich country like the Netherlands’. Rotten molars, broken molars, toothache. People who are terribly ashamed of their teeth, or worse, cannot eat. Landman finds it incomprehensible that acute dental care is not included in the basic package. For an ear infection you can go to the best otolaryngologist there is, but you have to pay for a molar treatment yourself. Until that changes, vulnerable people are at the mercy of people like Landman.
‘I see dentists as traders’, says patient Tineke. She has suffered from terrible pain for years because her teeth are full of cavities. She wants nothing more than dentures, but is told time and again by dentists that her teeth are still too good. She cannot afford the costs of about 2,500 euros. The only person who understands that a prosthesis is necessary is Landman.
‘Great!’ Landman says when she has pulled out another bloody tooth, root and all. The lucky one is the apparently always cheerful and colorfully dressed Amy. She lives on the street and gets a prosthesis due to lack of upper teeth. Just like Marjolein by the way, and Tineke, and Daniel.