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Last Updated: Friday, 4 November 2005, 16:03 GMT
Mobile dentist is big pull at pub
Mobile dentist
The mobile dental surgery at Llanddona
A pub car park in an Anglesey village has become temporary home to a mobile dentist surgery - and the bar is the waiting room.

The van is parked outside the Owain Glyndwr in Llanddona twice a week.

Dr Angela Honey, 67, has been persuaded to come out of retirement to act as an emergency dentist due to a shortage.

The local health board said a mobile surgery was unusual but that none of the 11 local surgeries were accepting new NHS patients.

Dr Honey's surgery is open every Tuesday and Friday for a trial period, and after only three weeks has a full patient list.

She retired from her surgery in Menai Bridge in January 2005, but then started working as an emergency NHS dentist in Gwynedd.

She decided to use the mobile van after her old patients asked her to carrying on working.

We consider ourselves a community pub, and it's nice to have the place used in this way
Vicki Wood, landlady

Dr Honey is assisted by dental nurse Kathy Roberts, who has been a dental nurse for 10 years.

"This is by far the most unusual place I have worked, but I love it," said Ms Roberts.

All the instruments are sterilised at the mobile units 'twin' van which is parked outside Dr Honey's home nearby.

The landlady at the Owain Glyndwr, Vicki Wood, is delighted with the arrangement, although she has not had treatment there herself yet.

"We consider ourselves a community pub, and it's nice to have the place used in this way," she said.

In the past Dr Honey has worked all over the world offering treatment to people who might otherwise have no access to a dentist.

Health board

Her travels have taken her to the Arctic, Outer Mongolia, Ethiopia, Romania and Russia.

Angela Honey at work
Angela Honey treats a patient in the van

A spokesman for Anglesey Local Health Board said mobile dental surgeries were unsual in the area.

"There are 11 dental surgeries on Anglesey and none of these are accepting any new NHS dental patients. We can confirm there is a shortage of NHS dental practitioners," the spokesman added.

When not at home on Anglesey the truck travels to different music festivals - including Glastonbury where it supplies emergency dental treatment to festival goers - and also works with the charity Crisis.

Dr Honey will be travelling to London in December, supervising three mobile dental trucks and 30 dentists as they treat the homeless.

But the dentist shortage has an effect on this work.

"We could do with more dentists to help us, and in particular more dental nurses".


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