Denplan price, is it reasonable?

cybervic

I am thinking of joining denplan and my dentist just quoted me £32.68 per month for a band D price (was originally £36.71 but he gave me some discount) . Because I also had two lava crowns fitted, he also mentioned the lab fee for a lava crown is £250. I was expecting twenty-ish monthly fee and £150 lava crown fee, so just wanna ask around if the quote is reasonable.

I'd like to some opinion regarding if I should still keep my NHS dentist registration after I joining the denplan.

Thanks in advace.

Toothsmith

My adult 'D'band is £30 all but 25p.

The lab I use charges Lava at £150 per unit. But £250 doesn't sound unreasonable if it's a very high quality lab in a high cost area.

As for keeping your NHS registration - if you're in England or Wales, NHS dental registration doesn't exist anymore, so you're not 'registered' anyway. If you're in Scotland or N. Ireland, then the dentist would get into trouble if he was receiving NHS payments for you whilst you were signed onto a private scheme.

But in all honesty, if you like Lava crowns, I can't see you being very satisfied with anything that the NHS will have to offer!

Beng a private dental patient doesn't stop you accessing any other NHS service. If you ever needed - say- a wisdom tooth out in hospital, you'd still be referred into the NHS hospital oral surgery system.

Dill

I'm reading this thread with interest, because I was wondering about going for DenPlan at some point in the future (I use an NHS dentist at the moment)

If I understand it right, you pay X amount per month (once you're 'dentally fit' to join) and then you pay a lab fee on top of this if you need treatment?

Sorry if this is a silly question, but what is this 'lab fee' that's being referred to? Is there any way of budgetting for it, or does it depend on what treatment your dentist decides you need?

Toothsmith

Dill wrote: »

I'm reading this thread with interest, because I was wondering about going for DenPlan at some point in the future (I use an NHS dentist at the moment)

If I understand it right, you pay X amount per month (once you're 'dentally fit' to join) and then you pay a lab fee on top of this if you need treatment?

Sorry if this is a silly question, but what is this 'lab fee' that's being referred to? Is there any way of budgetting for it, or does it depend on what treatment your dentist decides you need?

You only pay a lab fee if you need a treatment that involves a dental technician making something for you. So something like a crown or a denture, or a gumshield etc.

For check-ups, fillings, rootfillings and anything that just involves the dentist's time and materials, it's all covered.


This isn't to be confused with 'Denplan Essentials'. This is a monthly fee which is lower than Denplan Care - but it only includes a couple of check-ups and hygienist visits and maybe x-rays. Everything else is done at a discount off the practice's private fee scale. Some places offer both, but most places offer one or the other.

On both of them, there is an insurance component which will cover you for dental emergencies whilst away on holiday, or away from home generally. It also covers you in case of an accident like slipping on a step, or a cricket ball in the face.

cybervic

Toothsmith wrote: »

My adult 'D'band is £30 all but 25p.

The lab I use charges Lava at £150 per unit. But £250 doesn't sound unreasonable if it's a very high quality lab in a high cost area.

Thanks TS, I've rang couple of local dental clinic and their band D are £28 ~ £32, guess my dentist is just expansive (I'm in Brighton & Hove area). I am also wondering how the lab fee charge works. Will he show me the original invoice from the lab he use? Do Denplan dentists have to submit such invoice to Denplan to prove they're not charging whatever price they feel like?

Toothsmith wrote: »

As for keeping your NHS registration - if you're in England or Wales, NHS dental registration doesn't exist anymore, so you're not 'registered' anyway.

REALLY? Could you please elaborate a bit more coz I though I am still registered with my NHS dentist? (just went for a check up 7 month ago.) The problem with NHS is that I always have to wait and wait even when I was in pain. The private dentist I'm seeing now can see me almost immediately and I suppose that's a very important factor for me.

Toothsmith wrote: »

Beng a private dental patient doesn't stop you accessing any other NHS service. If you ever needed - say- a wisdom tooth out in hospital, you'd still be referred into the NHS hospital oral surgery system.

If I'm with denplan, will it cover any private hospital oral treatment (is there such service?). Sorry for asking so many question, just wanna know my options and rights before I sign my life away.:o

Teerah

cybervic wrote: »

If I'm with denplan, will it cover any private hospital oral treatment (is there such service?). Sorry for asking so many question, just wanna know my options and rights before I sign my life away.:o

No, it will not cover any treatment outside your deplan dentist's surgery other than emergency treatment. If you needed hospital treatment eg, extraction of wisdom teeth, you can be referred under the health service as TS has advised or you would need to pay if you wish to be referred privately.

This should all have been explained to you when you had your assessment with the dentist offering you the denplan agreement.

BigSpender2_2

Im in Denplan but my dentist has now told me he will not do root canal treatment anymore, which has cheesed me off (not that I need any at mo). However, I've been with him for 30+ years but I am starting to wonder if it's now worth it. The reason I stay with him is experience and satisfaction, but if he not doing the big jobs is there any point.

It's not local to me any more so just costs more money to travel there

sorry to rant...

Toothsmith

BigSpender2 wrote: »

Im in Denplan but my dentist has now told me he will not do root canal treatment anymore, which has cheesed me off (not that I need any at mo). However, I've been with him for 30+ years but I am starting to wonder if it's now worth it. The reason I stay with him is experience and satisfaction, but if he not doing the big jobs is there any point.

It's not local to me any more so just costs more money to travel there

sorry to rant...

I would contact Denplan and just ask them about this.

I can't understand why he's doing this.

Dentists have complete control of the fees they charge, so if he's finding covering root fillings difficult, it would have been better to put an extra litttle bit on the fees, and arry on covering it, rather than having a huge black hole in what should be a comprehensive service.

It might just be that if the people from Denlan had a look at things, they could suggest a way in which everything could still be covered.

Ultimately it is up to the dentist though.

Toothsmith

cybervic wrote: »

REALLY? Could you please elaborate a bit more coz I though I am still registered with my NHS dentist? (just went for a check up 7 month ago.) The problem with NHS is that I always have to wait and wait even when I was in pain. The private dentist I'm seeing now can see me almost immediately and I suppose that's a very important factor for me.

No - you're not 'registered' with your NHS dentist.

It used to be that dentists received a fee for every patient on their books (A whole 25p per month as I recall) for which they ageed to provide out-of-hours emergency cover, and provide 'continuing care'.

In April 2006, with the introduction of the new contract, that was abolished.

Now, anyone who wants 'access' to an NHS dentist technically has an equal right to any NHS dentist's time. It doesn't matter if they've been regularly to the same place for 30 years, or if they pick a random practice every 5 years when they get a toothache. The dentist must see them so long as they have 'capacity'.

The only people a dentist has any responsibility for are the ones currently undergoing treatment. Once that treatment is finished, the relationship technically ends, and in 6 months (Or 2 years if you belive the current recommendation for recall intervals on the NHS) then you are a 'new patient' again, and will only be seen if the dentist has 'capacity' for you.

That's probably why it takes an age to get an 'emergency' appointment. The dentist has no obligation to see you, as you're not 'registered' anymore.

You're better off out of it if you want 'proper' dentistry.

cybervic

Thanks for the reply.
Shouldn't they inform all the patients to let them know that we are no longer registered!!! My OH is still with NHS because she's got really good tooth, now maybe I should get her out!

Toothsmith

Who's they?

The Government?

" Sorry, but because such a small percentage of the population were registered with an NHS dentist, it all got a bit embarassing, so we decided to abolish it. Also, all those press reports about mad old women taking their own teeth out also made us look rather bad.

So. What we've done is to make every NHS dentist available to absolutely anybody with a toothache, as we've figured that people who actually want a decent dental service with a degree of continuing care are probably a bit more middle class, and can probably pay privately for it anyway."

That would be really great if they did, but I'd probably fall of my giraffe in surprise!