Dental charges

geri1965_2

I recently went to see my dentist, who said I had the very early stages of gum disease (great!) and would need a scale and polish.

They charged me £16.20 for the consultation and said I had to make another appointment for the scale & polish and it would cost £30 (private not NHS).

Is this right? According the NHS website £16.20 should include a scale and polish:

Band 1 course of treatment
£16.20 - This covers an examination, diagnosis (eg: x-rays), advice on how to prevent future problems, and a scale and polish if needed.

I'm also wondering why this is being done on a private basis when I am with an NHS dentist.

Can anyone help?

andy_hunk

geri1965 wrote: »

I recently went to see my dentist, who said I had the very early stages of gum disease (great!) and would need a scale and polish.

They charged me £16.20 for the consultation and said I had to make another appointment for the scale & polish and it would cost £30 (private not NHS).

Is this right? According the NHS website £16.20 should include a scale and polish:

Band 1 course of treatment
£16.20 - This covers an examination, diagnosis (eg: x-rays), advice on how to prevent future problems, and a scale and polish if needed.

I'm also wondering why this is being done on a private basis when I am with an NHS dentist.

Can anyone help?

If you can get it done on the base price on the NHS ask them why they have advised you to have it done private with a price hike! it may be bacause they can get you in sooner than an NHS patient. I had murder a couple of months ago with toothache and had a temporary cap put in by the emergency dentist for £16.20 and after making an appointment to see a normal dentist I have been quoted £250 for root canel surgery :eek: in addition I also have another missing tooth that is not causing me any grief (so far) and they said thta would cost £40 for a filling.

Andy

geri1965_2

Ouch, that seems a lot - is that with a private dentist? NHS dentists shouldn't charge that much, see here:

http://www.whatprice.co.uk/dentist/nhs-prices.html

Toothsmith

geri1965 wrote: »

I recently went to see my dentist, who said I had the very early stages of gum disease (great!) and would need a scale and polish.

They charged me £16.20 for the consultation and said I had to make another appointment for the scale & polish and it would cost £30 (private not NHS).

Is this right? According the NHS website £16.20 should include a scale and polish:

Band 1 course of treatment
£16.20 - This covers an examination, diagnosis (eg: x-rays), advice on how to prevent future problems, and a scale and polish if needed.

I'm also wondering why this is being done on a private basis when I am with an NHS dentist.

Can anyone help?

If you are an NHS patient an NEEDa specific treatment, then you are entitled to that treatment on the NHS.

The NHS dental contract is an absolute pig, and if dentists tried to follow it to the letter whilst providing anything more than an extraction shop are putting themselves under severe financial pressure.

Nonetheless - they signed it. If they weren't prepared to honour it, then they shouldn't be taking taxpayers cash at all.

If you have early gum disease, then you NEED a clean and polish, and, as you rightly say, that treatment should be available as a Band 1 treatment.

Treating gum problems can be a bit of a grey area, as treating more severe problems can fall into the band 2 category. But I would suggest that that needed more than just an extra visit. Plus - if he's definitely said this will be private, then he has really put himself up Do-Do creek without a paddle. He's not allowed to do that.

I would ring the practice if I were you and ask why your problem cannot be sorted out on the NHS as you are an NHS patient.

If they still insist that it must be sorted out privately, then I would ring the PCT and talk to the dental person, telling them just what you have been told. See what they suggest then.

Toothsmith

geri1965 wrote: »

Ouch, that seems a lot - is that with a private dentist? NHS dentists shouldn't charge that much, see here:

http://www.whatprice.co.uk/dentist/nhs-prices.html

I really don't like the 'whatprice' website for dental things. Itcan be quite misleading.

Just on the page you quotefor example, it has apicectomies down as band 3 198 quid treatment.

It isn't.

If, by any miracle, you ever persuade an NHS dentist todo an apicectomy, it would be a Band 2 44 quid treatment.

There are many other errors on that page in explainations, but it would take me too long to go into them all.

geri1965_2

Thanks Toothsmith, that's really helpful.

Edit - just rang them and they said that although a scale and polish can be done under Band 1, this won't be sufficient and they need to spend longer because they need to get into the pockets to sort the problem out.

Does this sound right? Not really sure I want to kick up that much of a fuss as I do like my dentist and I'd rather pay £30 than have my teeth fall out. :eek:

alison999

geri1965 wrote: »

Thanks Toothsmith, that's really helpful.

Edit - just rang them and they said that although a scale and polish can be done under Band 1, this won't be sufficient and they need to spend longer because they need to get into the pockets to sort the problem out.

Does this sound right? Not really sure I want to kick up that much of a fuss as I do like my dentist and I'd rather pay £30 than have my teeth fall out. :eek:

£30 seems like a good price to see a PRIVATE hygienst. your dentist should still do it on the nhs, but many of the patients where i work are HAPPY to pay private because they know theyre getting a better service. id say it depends how much it botthers you paying private, many people see it as something they have already paid for in the £16.20, and theyre right, but the dentist wont have the same amount of time to spend with you as the hygienist.

Toothsmith

geri1965 wrote: »

Thanks Toothsmith, that's really helpful.

Edit - just rang them and they said that although a scale and polish can be done under Band 1, this won't be sufficient and they need to spend longer because they need to get into the pockets to sort the problem out.

Does this sound right? Not really sure I want to kick up that much of a fuss as I do like my dentist and I'd rather pay £30 than have my teeth fall out. :eek:

I'm a bit confused here now.

This sounds like they're trying to explain why your treatment is a Band 2 treatment rather than a band 1 treatment, which as I said above, is a bit of a grey area, and if they feel your treatment is Band 2, then as I've not seen you, and don't know how they operate, I can't really argue with.

The thing is that a Band 1 treatment is £16 odd quid, and the Band 2 treatment is £44 odd quid - a difference of about £30.

So - is the extra £30 they want to charge you a PRIVATE fee - in which case there is naughtiness going on, or is it 'about' £30, and just the difference between a band 1, and a band 2 fee - in which case it's probably Kosher?

Toothsmith

alison999 wrote: »

£30 seems like a good price to see a PRIVATE hygienst. your dentist should still do it on the nhs, but many of the patients where i work are HAPPY to pay private because they know theyre getting a better service. I'd say it depends how much it botthers you paying private, many people see it as something they have already paid for in the £16.20, and theyre right, but the dentist wont have the same amount of time to spend with you as the hygienist.

I have no problems with dentists explaining to patients the differences between what they can get on the NHS and what they can get privately - so long as it's done honestly and that NHS patients are given NHS solutions to their problems.

What I object to is NHS patients being told that there is no NHS solution to their problem, and that they will have to pay a private charge to get anything done about it.

£30 is not a bad private fee to see a hygienist (It's over double that at my practice), but the point is there should be an NHS option for this patient, and there doesn't seem to have been one offered.

(But after the OPs last post I'm not sure that it is a 'private' fee we're talking about anyway - it might just be the difference between band 1 and band 2.)

geri1965_2

Toothsmith wrote: »

So - is the extra £30 they want to charge you a PRIVATE fee - in which case there is naughtiness going on, or is it 'about' £30, and just the difference between a band 1, and a band 2 fee - in which case it's probably Kosher?

It's exactly £30 - the treatment plan says £16.20 NHS, £30 private.

The dentist is doing it not a hygienist.

Toothsmith

If he's really written it down then you've got him banged to rights!

He is obliged to fix your problem on the NHS.

I can't understand why he's done this though, he could easily have made a case for this being a Band 2 treatment and charged the higher fee. Although the higher fee wouldn't make a difference to him financially, it would mean he could claim 3 UDAs (funding points) for it though - which are just as important as money in the new NHS!

I would have a word with the PCT still though, and show them the treatment plan.

This guy seems to not quite be up to speed on the NHS contract, and although he seems to be trying to make it work as best he can in the interests of both his patients and himself, if he understood what he can and can't claim for, both him, his patients and the PCT might all get along much better.