Pensioner performs self-dentistry with pliers

A 65-year-old pensioner from Uralla, in north-eastern New South Wales, has criticised the lack of dental services on the northern tablelands, after being forced to pull one of her own teeth.

Val Shorter lives in an isolated area west of Uralla and says she tried unsuccessfully to make a dental appointment after suffering for a week in excruciating pain.

She has called for urgent action to improve dental services after an experience she says left her unable to stand.

"I got the pinched-nose pliers, I opened a bottle of wine I'd won at bowls, had a couple of glasses of wine ... a little bit of Dutch courage," she said.

"[I] loosened the tooth one way, which really, really truly hurt, loosened it the other way, put the pliers on tightly [and] went forward. [My] knees hit the floor, pliers hit the floor [and the] tooth hit the cupboard."