Man with no insurance pulls own teeth

BEVERLY, England, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- A British man says he used pliers to pull 13 teeth from his own mouth because he couldn't find a dentist willing to take government-insured patients.

Iraq War veteran Ian Boynton told the British tabloid The Daily Mail Wednesday that he asked more than two dozen dentists in East Yorkshire to look after his teeth, which he says were causing him severe pain. But since he couldn't provide private insurance, he was turned down, he said.

"I've tried to get in at 30 dentists over the last eight years but have never been able to find one to take on (National Health Insurance) patients," Boynton, 42, of Beverly, England, told the newspaper. Instead, he removed a tooth with a pair of pliers in 2006.

"In the end I knew it had to come out, and had to use the pliers to pull it. Amazingly, it did not hurt as much as you might think," said Boynton, a former British Army medic.

Since then has taken out 12 more, and now only has two teeth left in the roof of his mouth, The Daily Mail said.