Help With Dental Costs??????????

lorraine66601

Hi my son is 23 on the miniun wage and working 30 hours per week. he has just came home from the dentist with a bill for £960 is there any way he can get help with this bill???

jenny-wren

All dentists are required to advise a patient needing teatment whether they are being treated on the NHS or privately and to give an approximate cost for the treatment.

If you son is an NHS patient his dentist can submit a treatment plan for prior approval meaning that, if the treatment is approved, he only has to pay a maximum of £384 for a single course of treatment.

Either the dentist has not got prior approval, your son is a private patient or the treatment he received was not available on the NHS. Perhaps it was cosmetic dentistry?

If he is a private patient there is nothing you can do about the bill. If he is an NHS patient you should get more info from the dentist as to what was done and why the bill is so high.

If you get no answers from the dentist you should contact your local health board eg. Eastern Health & Social Services Board.

Artofdookie

Dentist = Money grabbing greedy scum

bribrian

lorraine66601 wrote: »

he has just came home from the dentist with a bill for £960 is there any way he can get help with this bill???

Sounds about right for 2 fillings...........:eek:

Seriously though i'd go & speak to the dentist personally to see if you can come to some arrangement....

maka_2

Artofdookie wrote: »

Dentist = Money grabbing greedy scum

very adult comment. not. silly boy you have no idea

maka_2

lorraine66601 wrote: »

Hi my son is 23 on the miniun wage and working 30 hours per week. he has just came home from the dentist with a bill for £960 is there any way he can get help with this bill???

Has your son not been paying as he has been going???

jenny-wren

Just to add - it sounds like the treatment was completely private. If this is the case and you are not happy you can complain to the General Dental Council.

http://www.dentalcomplaints.org.uk/

Toothsmith

When you say he's come home with a 'bill', do you mean an estimate, for work yet to be done? Or he's had work done, and completely out of the blue, he's found out that he now owes the dentist nearly £1000?

If it's just an estimate he's come home with, then prehaps he could speak to the dentist about getting the more urgent bits done now, and getting the rest done over a few months?

Treatment plans are rarely set in stone, and there can be several ways to achieve the same ultimate goal. Did the dentist know the financial situation of your son? If he did, he might have planned it differently anyway.

He may also accept regular payments as the treatment progresses. I think he needs to go back and have a discussion with the dentist.

If he's been having work done, and all of a sudden found out that he owes the dentist all that money, then something has gone very wrong somewhere.

It is up to the dentist to make sure the patient knows exactly how much (or at least a very good idea how much) the bill will be, and it's part of the consent process that the patient knows what it will cost.

If the dentist has told him this, and your son's agreed, and now he doesn't know where he's going to get the money from - well that's just his silly fault! If he agreed to the treatment knowing how much it would cost - then somewhere or other he now needs to find the money.

steveymp

maka wrote: »

very adult comment. not. silly boy you have no idea

Sorry, but I agree with dookie :rolleyes:

nozzadamozza

hi lorraine66601
i know it wont sort the bill out this time but he should get some dental cover like hsa (it was through this site that i found out about it)- it about £12 per month and is excellent for dental coverage (not things that are cosmetic though) You have to be paying it for three months to then be able to put in a claim but I took it up last year and means that I dont have to fork out for the dentist (you pay the dentist though, then claim it back, is done very quickly). I didnt know about it and didnt go to the dentist for about 2 years as I couldnt really afford it, but now this means I have peace of mind if dental problems occur (and in the last year I have had quite a few)

Their site is here and I have no affiliation to them whatsoever. Am really glad I use them- was flying into belfast yesterday (on easyjet, not my own plane ) and a filling fell out when I was chewing a mint (a lesson to you all!!!!)- got emergency appointment with dentist- cost £53 but will be able to claim 75% of that back