NHS Dentistry No Longer Available For Children

LondonDiva

Fraserca wrote:

My point is that unlike many professionals, dentists are very well paid indeed for doing what is routinely a simple job.

I once disected a frog - Can I wave a drill near your jaw and nerves with the possibility of causing paralysis, and diagnose & treat infection at the same time - since when has being a dentist been an easy job? Ever tried to papier mache? - It's even harder:rolleyes:

Fraserca wrote:

Show me a poor dentist that can't feed his kids or pay the mortgage on his home. Bleeding hearts...

Any dentist by the age of 40 who doesn't have a lot of money in the bank/ in their house, a decent car, the ability to spend money without thinking about whether the money will run out by the end of the week, good holidays every year etc - Isn't much of a dentist.

When are we in this country going to stop the politics of envy? Just because I don't have the qualifications / do the job that means he drives a BMW etc, it means he shouldn't have one. If you ofeel you can deal with halitosis & work on restructuring jaws & theeth, do the training, set up your own small business, with attendant overheads & get yourself a nice house

Fraserca wrote:

How much do dental technicians get paid in comparison? How many hours does a teacher work?

A dental technician is not a dentist - dental technicians as far as I recall (pls someone correct me!) are employed by dentists & do slightly different stuff. that's like complaining that a healthcare assistant or a lab technician doesn't get the same as a nurse...different jobs=different pay.[/QUOTE]

Fraserca wrote:

many have as much worry and responsibility ( self employed ) yet dentists are above that and feel that they can get a lot more money for less work.

Yep - a dentist is a clinician that can sometimes need to make life or death decisions when treating you / diagnose and prevent something serious. If society feels that dentists are that uppity & misinformed (after all what work do they do?) - put in the new contract, the dentists go private and lets see how many end up bakrupt shall we?

Diva

justpaper

i dont see why ppl are taking it out on the dentists if a dentists wants too go private then so be it,.. the Gov. should sort out a better plan with the dentists instead they try to save money here un there just like the whole issue with the nurses,. i guess its just the Gov. way of pressuring ppl to go private,. the Gov. really need a slap alot of money is just wasted and the public cant really say nothing about it. anyways im not going too get started with them,..

bap98189

I work in a conference centre, which is attached to a hospital.

We have a saying at work. When there is a doctor's conference on you can tell because the car park is full of BMW's and Mercedes. When there is a dentist's conference on you can tell because it is full of Porche's and Ferrari's. Sadly this is not just a joke.

Davidboy

Well all I can say is, my gran had no teeth for years, she gave her meat a damn good gumming and survived ok. Looks like we will all be doing the same, don't fill em, pull em!!

Perhaps we should go back to the days of the Hairdresse doing it all. Short back and sides mate, oh and by the way pull this tooth please!!

OK I know thats not a good idea, we will not get time off from the workhouse to get to the hairdressers!!


D

bank_of_slate

Toothsmith wrote:

If a dentist is taking on NHS patients, he has to take on all categories.

Kids, Exempt adults, Fee paying adults, nice ones, smelly ones, rich ones, poor ones, ugly ones, pretty ones, BNP, KKK, Islamic fundamentlists, evangelical christians convicts, rapists, dwarfs, blind, deaf, stupid, etc etc.

If a dentist is not taking on NHS patients, then he isn't accepting anybody on the NHS.

There are still laws on discrimination though, so a dentist could well be in trouble if he refused to see someone privately because they were black or gay or something.

Hi Toothsmith....You forgot disabled! I hope you're DDA compliant!
...Linda xx (Dental Nurse Adviser for 2 West Yorkshire PCTs)

before_hollywood

my dentist has just gone private- was i surpirised? not really!
The government has neglected the nhs for years- when they took over they could have done something half decent with it- maybe not waved a magic wand and made it as high a standard as private but done something positive.
As it stands they haven't, when i fractured my wrist in 2002, i spent about 7 hours in hospital, all i needed was an x-ray and plastering up.
the only alternative if you don't have an existing nhs dentist or you don't want to pay when your dentist goes private are hospital dentists- and i REALLY did not fancy that.
i pay about £13 a month- so it is a bit more than what i used to pay for my 6-monthly check up and polish but i believe the letter i got from my dentist, i can quite feasibly see the nhs under funding them- i dread to think what some of the stuff they need costs :eek:
and to anyone who says dentists don't deserve what they get- i had an accident when i was 8 (in 89?) and my lower jaw was knocked completely out of place, i had all manner of treatment that went on till 1997 and thankfully now you would never be able to tell- and that was all down to a local orthodontist (sp?), sure they may have nice cars and big houses- but i would have been lost without them

Toothsmith

Davidboy wrote:

Perhaps we should go back to the days of the Hairdressers doing it all. Short back and sides mate, oh and by the way pull this tooth please!!

You mean barbers!

Anyway, just for the sake of comparison, how much do you think a hairdresser would charge to pull out a tooth?

More than to pierce someone's ears? More than a cut & blow dry? More or less than to tint someones hair?

At the place I go, a tinting is £45, piercing ears is £25

The former is close to my private tooth extraction price, the latter is still double the NHS fee for an extraction.

Makes you think doesn't it?

Fraserca

We seem to be missing the point in this thread. The facts of the matter are that people are not getting dental treatment when they need it, either as part of on going maintenance or in the case of treatment.

The situation has been allowed to develop where high charges prevent people ( and not just poor people ) from attending the dentist until it is too late. Neither the dental profession or the NHS come out of this well. They seem to either blame each other for this debacle or become entrenched and say they can't afford to do anything.

It is time that we recognised that there is a widespread need for a low cost dental service in the UK. Its not necessary that dental surgeries have all the latest equipment costing thousands of pounds just to check up a childs teeth and give good advice and I feel that by only being able to offer expensive treatment to the few is denying basic dental health needs of the many.

We have neglected the dental health of a whole generation because of this. And it IS neglect to fail to look after children's teeth.

Unfortunately many families are faced with the choice of dental bills or more immedaite demands for their money.

LondonDiva

Why should dental care be neccessarily low cost? Many people who moan about dental charges pay twice as much for hair treatment, an MOT or for a meal out.

Your teeth are important and you are getting a qualifeid medical professional who is skilled indiagnostics etc to look at your oral health. do not underestimate what can be revealed - the tube had an ad for some smoking charity today, when a woman's oral cancer was spotted during a routine check up.

Toothsmith

Fraserca wrote:

And it IS neglect to fail to look after children's teeth.
.

Couldn't agree more.

Read THIS and tell me where you think the neglect is?