Dental Insurance Cost Cutting Plan Article Discussion Area

Dora_the_Explorer_5

Toothsmith wrote:

I think Jennifer Anniston and Tom Cruise would fall about laughing at Martin's suggestion that their smiles are 'cheap to look after'!

Maybe it was a typo and should have read their smiles are 'cheap to look at' - not to mention very, very, scary, un-human and wouldn't look out of place in a piano.

If my dentist turned me out like them I'd sue.

Lara

Probably going to sound like a daft question but I often wonder do all these American's have veneer's on their teeth or what ? OK lots of kids and some adults all have braces now to help straighten teeth, some have them bleached but surely the teeth aren't as strong as they would be if left alone. Just wonder if 20 yrs down the line they'll all be having false teeth fitted or implants because their ones have fallen out :eek:

Dora_the_Explorer_5

As many American film stars make great play of how they were raised dirt poor - yes, they're probably veneered up to the hilt as their families wouldn't have been able to pay for dental care for them. Mind you, spotting who has veneers, implants, cheap crowns adds to the gaiety of movie and tv watching. Jodie Marsh looks like she swopped sets with a horse :eek:
And when we're bored with that we can check out the politicians, who seem to be only able to afford to have the top set seen to. Check out Gordon Brown :rotfl:

Lara

Jodie Marsh not only swopped places with a horse but her nose with .................?????????????? I don't know what!

David_Mee

OK, some pointers re the article (sorry this is going to be boring!) - you mention flossing and brushing will decrease bills - but forget completely about decay. Flossing and brushing only help gum disease prevention (OK little bit of decay prevention if fluoride in toothpaste but on whole they look after GUMS)
To prevent decay you need to limit the NUMBER OF TIMES you eat or drink ANYTHING with sugar or acid in it. The problem there being that loads of supposedly healthy stuff has sugar sneaked in to make it taste nicer - e.g. some sweetcorn or peas have sugar added.
You have to read the labels and check anything you aren't sure about - anything ending -ose (glucose, sucrose etc) is a sugar - manufacturers have got wise to this so now use "natural sugars" (as if they are somehow better!! Honey and other things are still bad for your teeth.
Anything acidic circumvents the sugar=>acid route and should also be avoided - hidden acids include Vitamin C and also anything fizzy is produced by an acid so even fizzy water is bad for your teeth!

The good thing is saliva is designed to repair teeth given time so if you eat everything bad for your teeth at a meal time and then wait 3-4 hours your saliva will have reversed the damage. When asleep your saliva shuts off so anything eaten within 3 hours of going to sleep must NOT cause damage as it will sit on your teeth over night.

As has been pointed out very few people hit the maximum charge so you have fallen for the government hype about the one time prices are lowering! Everything else has dramatically increased. Yes you can sit round until you have a mouthful of fillings needing doing but no dentist is obliged to take you on if you arrive with a mouthful needing doing.

People also assume that NHS produce top of the range treatment - it isn't aimed at top notch its aimed at "adequate" - a ferrari, a toyota and a mini all get you from A to B but you pay differently for each. People don't slag off ferrari dealers adn expect them to sell for mini prices - why does everyone do this for dentists?

Private dentistry isn’t cheap: some private dentists charge four times as much as an NHS dentist would for similar treatment.

The operative word being "similar" - you should get more time, less rushed appointments - better materials, e.g. tooth coloured as opposed to silver metal, tooth coloured crowns as opposed to silver metal crowns etc etc.

Other than that a great article

Toothsmith

Lara wrote:

Probably going to sound like a daft question but I often wonder do all these American's have veneer's on their teeth or what ? OK lots of kids and some adults all have braces now to help straighten teeth, some have them bleached but surely the teeth aren't as strong as they would be if left alone. Just wonder if 20 yrs down the line they'll all be having false teeth fitted or implants because their ones have fallen out :eek:

Very good point.

The ONLY thing that has a chance of lasting you throughout your life is a tooth that's had NOTHING done to it!

Once something has been done, that 'thing' has a lifespan, and will need replacing at some point. Often, the replacement causes slightly more damage than the original, and will last just a little bit less time.

Having something done WELL will mean it will last a bit longer than something that hasn't been done so well or has been done in a rush. So ultimately, having things in your mouth done well will mean your teeth last longer.

So, basically you are right. Americans (Or Brits) with a mouthful of crowns/veneers will need much more expensive work over their lifetime than someone with just natural teeth.

Witness the dear late Queen Mother. At 104 her teeth looked awful. Dark & quite crooked. I bet my life that these were her real original teeth though, and the fact they'd lasted until she was 104 was a testement to the good dentistry she'd have received throughout her life meaning that they had deteriorated very little. Had she been mucked about with, and 'hollywoodised' she'd have been on dentures or implants by 104, which would have looked brilliant - but been expensive (Not a problem to her) and been a lot of surgery and time in a dentist chair, which she really wouldn't have liked!

Don't be put off orthodontics & whitening though. These proceedures make a huge difference without 'doing' anything to the tooth structure. There are also several really good cosmetic proceedures that can be done by just adding white filling or porcelain to edges of front teeth without damaging anything underneath.

The bottom line is, get a GOOD dentist (Not a cheap one) go regularly, listen to advice, and if anything ever needs to be done, go for the option that damages the tooth the least.

juniper1

I've been to the dentist twice this week. Once because my crown fell out and had to be stuck back on and today which was my usual 3 month visit to the hygenist. I go every three months because its better for my teeth to be scraped and polished to avoid genetic gum disease. (I have nice teeth actually). Cost today was £9.70 and I signed the NHS form as it was an NHS funded scrape & polish. The other two visits I have a year are deemed private but interestingly I pay the same amount!!! The cost I was told was £9.70 because the appointment was pre-booked before 1st April. Next visit in July will cost me £15.50 under the new rules. It will be a private scrape & polish but will cost the same as if it was under the NHS!!! So the government have made £5.80 more out of me. 4 times a year = £23.20. What I want to know is this - My twice yearly checkups with the dentist do not coincide with the hygenist appointments. I always book at least 6 months ahead so that I get the times that I want but under the new rules will I pay an additional £15.50 x 2 for the checkups? Also the receptionist today said that the bandings are also dependent on how long your appointment is so if I saw the dentist for my checkup and the the hygenist and the whole appointment went over 15 minutes would I move up into the next banding of £42.50. All very confusing and a total rip off by the government on the part of the public and the dentists.

MSE_Martin

Thanks for the feedback folks, I've made a couple of wee changes, fillings you may call them. Included is the acceptance of the cruise and anniston teeth, and the warning against sugar and acid.

Martin 3 fillings and a full crown Lewis

Toothsmith

A while ago I started a thread on NHS information post April 1st.

It contains links to the DoH's own information leaflet for NHS charges.

the thread is HERE

I notice you still have in the article NHS check up 'capped at' £15.50,

and fillings 'up to' £42.50.

This is wrong.

There are now JUST 3 NHS charges.

A patient will pay £15.50 for anything and everything in band 1, be it a quick check-up, or a check up with a simple clean, or a check up and an x- ray.

Band 2 is £42.50 - not up to, or about but £42.50. Be it a small repair to an existing filling, a tooth out, a series of fillings or all teeth extracted.

Band 3 is £189. Be it a simple one unit denture, that used to cost about £40 on the NHS, or a single crown, which used to cost £60 on the NHS. It is true that many crowns, which could well have cost £384 before on the NHS will now too cost £189, but as the fee for making these crowns comes out of the dentists pocket, and he gets no more credit for doing many crowns as he gets for doing one, the chances of getting taken on by an NHS dentist if you need such complex work is next to nothing.

In your article, you say that private treatment can cost up to 4 times more than NHS fees. Then you say a private filling can cost £50.

A single filling on the NHS will cost £42.50. £8 cheaper than the private one! But without the service, care and time that you get at a private practice.

ardgour_girl

What I don't understand in all this debate about paying for dental treatment is if we are entitled to NHS dental treatment (presumably just as we are entitled to NHS medical treatment) and the government is failing to provide us with the means to access the treatment why do they not have to reimburse us for the cost of private treatment? If I required a medical procedure which the NHS was failing to provide because they didn't have enough beds or doctors then the NHS would pay for it to be done by the private sector (or so the politicians tell us) so why not the same for dental treatment. has anyone ever tried testing this through the courts? The health service spends millions on 'tooth brushing initiatives' and other such schemes to improve dental health but its all a bit pointless if a large part of the population can't even get a dentist.