Self-Extracting

There's an old joke for kids:

Q: When is it time to see the dentist?

A: 2:30. (Say it like: "tooth-hurty")

Anyway, it seems to be 2:30 in the U.K.:

Some English people have resorted to pulling out their own teeth because they cannot find — or cannot afford — a dentist, a major study has revealed.

Six percent of those questioned in a survey of 5,000 patients admitted they had resorted to self-treatment using pliers and glue, the UK's Press Association reported.

Well, we knew English dental care was in a precarious state, from looking at photos of their celebrities. Still, how did it come to this?

The English have NHS - the National Health System. Isn't socialized dentistry supposed to take care of things like this?

...more than three-quarters of those polled said they had been forced to pay for private treatment because they had been unable to find an NHS dentist. Almost a fifth said they had refused dental treatment because of the cost.

They tell you that it's free,
It's what dentistry should be!
But then you learn the cost.
It's your freedom that gets lost.