NHS Dentistry Patient Information

Toothsmith

Have you ever sat down and worked out how much doing that is actually costing you? (Especially if you factor in a value for your own time).

Have a look around where you live. Private dental treatment is available at all sorts of price ranges, it's not all megabucks.

Plus lots of places have monthly plans that can be reasonably cheap as well.

Should you ever have a real problem, you will be much better off going somewhere local than trapesing half way up/down the country.

Toothsmith

sainthalo wrote:

im suspicious because - did he really want £180 for a 15 minute clean? was he trying to rip me off and i never needed 2 or 3 sessions worth of scaling? or was he being truthful and i needed the scaling sessions but now he has decided to lie and say theyre not needed but you must come back in 3 months? who knows?

There are often many more than one or two treatment plans that would suit a patient.

This is why if you visit more than one dentist you often get several different plans of what to do.

One 15 min visit would clean up the teeth which would bring down any inflammation around your gum. Essentially, you would leave the practice healthy, which is all the NHS wants. And bringing you back in 3 months time would again be the right thing to do there so as not to give it too long if things are reoccuring.

2-3 half hour visits with the hygienist would really give the teeth a good clean, in segments, possibly with anaesthetic as well.

Also at these appointments, the hygienist could go through toothbrushing with you, modify your techniques and really teach you where you were going wrong and how to put it right yourself.

In my opinion, all good and 'necessary' things, but not according to the people who put together the NHS dental service.

Trying to survive on the NHS is a numbers game. The only way you can keep your practice functioning and solvent is to get a big throughput of patients with as simple treatments as you can get away with.

Explaining absolutely everything with 100% accuracy is an impossibility in those circumstances.

I think your dentist is a good one, trying his best to operate an impossible system. My sympathy is tempered by the fact that he DID sign it though, and as such, he should operate it in accordance with the rules he has signed up to.

If dentists who felt they could not do this hadn't signed, then it would all have collapsed, and a decent public dental service would have to have been put in place.

sainthalo

I'm going to accept your advice Toothsmith because you have been my dental angel for some time now (whether you know it or not!) - thank you.

You are probably right he is a good guy but i do feel cheated by him. I'll reflect on it for the next few months, having never had any dental work necessary in 30 odd years i will hopefully not be a big customer anyway so he wouldnt miss me either way.

I do wish the NHS would sort their act out. This contract with 100 million shortfall is not sustainable, its ridiculous and is not working for the patients either as their is a monetary incentive for NHS dentists to reduce the level of care in some cases as we have seen on this forum.

sallywl

Toothsmith wrote:

Have you ever sat down and worked out how much doing that is actually costing you? (Especially if you factor in a value for your own time).

Have a look around where you live. Private dental treatment is available at all sorts of price ranges, it's not all megabucks.

Plus lots of places have monthly plans that can be reasonably cheap as well.

Should you ever have a real problem, you will be much better off going somewhere local than trapesing half way up/down the country.

I do get to see my family too, I am going to re-assess once we are settled in our new house, but i am not a fan of dentists anyway well its not them, its what they do :rolleyes: so would be a big thing for me changing dentists.

Toothsmith

sallywl wrote:

I do get to see my family too, I am going to re-assess once we are settled in our new house, but i am not a fan of dentists anyway well its not them, its what they do :rolleyes: so would be a big thing for me changing dentists.

Fair enough, but can you imagine having to do it because you are in pain and can't face the 300 mile journey?

The best time to change dentists is when everything is fine, and you can really take your time and explore all the options.

I had a patient in last week who had a badly broken tooth because her dog jumped up at her as she was brushing it.

We are all just one silly incident off a major problem.

I would put some thought to it if I were you.

MickKnipfler

I called the PCT. They said, ask the dentist to explain what the hygenist is doing that can't be done on the NHS and then ask them to write it down. They said it doesn't sound right.

After all....£28 can hardly be a lot of private treatment!

Toothsmith

It was pretty obvious to all of us in the dental game that this sort of thing was going to happen towards the end of the financial year, but I really didn't think anyone would run out of UDAs by the end of November!

LINK

Expect to see a lot more of this between now and April.

MickKnipfler

My crown fell off this morning. I only prodded it with an interdental brush. Surely that shouldn't push it off

Toothsmith

No - but when the cement seal goes, anything will bring it off.

This happens from time to time, just get it put back on pretty sharpish. (I don't mean it's an emergency, but ring up the practice on Monday.)

Frugal_Foxy

My last 3 NHS dentists have done v.bad work (as confirmed by the next dentist I saw). I am happy to go private but don't trust any of them. I've read lots on the web and investigated generally but how do I know what they say is true. Is there a site listing good and bad dentists? How do I find one I can truly trust? I'm desperate.

thanks