Dental Insurance Cost Cutting Plan Article Discussion Area

rainbow1975

I work in this NHS dental system and my advice would be to open a savings account put in the say £40 a month you would pay to an independent insurance scheme then if no treatment is needed you've saved money in YOUR pocket and not the insurance companies then at the end of the year you may have had one or two "check-ups" and still be in pocket of about £400 my company has a small £8 per month scheme and that includes 2 exams and 2 hygiene appointments a year plus 15% off any additional private work with the option of interest free monthly payments over 1 to 5 years depending on what you want to comfortably pay a month thus making complex treatment plans affordable.
The way the NHS is going with the NEW contract is a maintanence plan so minimal work over short periods and as has been said on other posts whether you need 1 or 12 fillings you still pay £42.40 but if you go back within 2 months for another filling you dont pay again as there is a "2 month " rule where you do not pay if you return within 2 months for the same or lesser "band" of treatment.
band 1 urgent £15.50
band 1 routine £15.50
band 2 £42.40
band 3 £189

hope this makes sense

lipper

Despite all the confusing private schemes and NHS payment bands the best money saving advice you can receive regarding your teeth is to take responsibility for looking after your own teeth, clean them thoroughly and often, reduce your sugar intake and frequency, and stop smoking. This will save you HUGE amounts of money in the long run.

Remember, with dentistry you get what you pay for.

Toothsmith

lipper wrote:

Despite all the confusing private schemes and NHS payment bands the best money saving advice you can receive regarding your teeth is to take responsibility for looking after your own teeth, clean them thoroughly and often, reduce your sugar intake and frequency, and stop smoking. This will save you HUGE amounts of money in the long run.

Remember, with dentistry you get what you pay for.

And go for regular check-ups!

MSE_Martin

Hi folks, am rather annoyed. As noted early I had made changes to the article before, rather interestingly almost exactly on the lines of the above..... unfortunately for some reason it hadn't taken, so I've just done it again.

Toothsmith

Much better now!

David_Mee

juniper1 wrote:

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.

Sorry this is absolute twaddle you are being told - probably due to rules being so complicated now even dentists not sure what to do.

Pricing depends on when course started so if it was new course of treatment (3 month scale) starting after 1st April you should have been charged £15.50 and dentist will be out of pocket by the difference as government assumes they have collected £15.50 and knocks this off the money they are paid.

Yes, you should coincide your exams with your scales so they count as same course then it will be £15.50 for exam & scale, then £15.50 just for scale 3 months later - dunno why they doing 3/12 scales privately as we have been able to do on NHS for ages - mind you if only charging same as NHS then you no worse off but dentist will be out of pocket again!

And its rubbish that fee depends on length of treatemnt - thats the thing thats annoyed so many dentists - we get the same 3 points if we do 2 minute repair, 5 fillings or 3 root fillings (taking over an hour each) and 15 fillings!! Would Tescos last long if they said "Its £20 for how ever much you want to buy"???

driller_killer

not sure i totally understood juniper1's post either. Seems very strange.

We have a mixed NHS/Denplan and Private practice and the patients walking around with the biggest smiles on their faces at the moment are the Denplan ones. We still accept new NHS patients, but the whole NHS system is bizarre. We have free check-ups for the over 60's in Wales, but the banding system throws it all to pot as though the "look" is free, if the dentist takes an xray to look under a filling, this then throws the patient into a chargeable (band 1) fee. To be fair, it was chargeable before (around £2), but now its sky rocketed to £12. Again, a simple chipped filling has gone from around £12 to £39 (welsh bands are cheaper) I can't see the point in "shopping around" as a previous post suggested - all the prices will be the same and you'll just be charged a band every time; it makes far more sense to stick with the same dentist and make sure you complete your appointments with them, or you'll be charged for another bands worth when you return.

What a lot of lay people need to understand (and our union has been rubbish at explaining this) is that dentists no longer get the money from the patient - instead, we're now salaried and we 'recover' the money on behalf of the PCT's/LHB's. As we've not had a pay rise, (except inflation), the cynic in me can't help but feel that this is just another stealth tax.

The banding system can't last in its current form - why on earth should i spend any time doing a root filling (3 credits, 1 hours work), when i can pull it out (3 credits, 10 mins work), or if i get in early, fissure seal it (3 credits, 2 mins work). What do you all think dentists will do, or put another way, what would YOU do in our position? Healthcare providers we may be, but we're also business people with bills to pay.

My own personal opinion is that NHS dentistry is finished, but what will be the end for it is patients CHOOSING to opt for some private treatments beacuse they're cheaper than the NHS (all our my private fillings are cheaper than the NHS ones we do). As dentists will then be doing less NHS work, the government will see fit to reduce our salaries and so on and so on until preventive work will be a private thing only. What will take the place of "NHS Dentistry" will be the much trumpted "Access Centres" where you can go and have your teeth pulled out if you have an abscess....... and thats it. No dentures, no crowns, no root fillings; just relief of pain.

So we'll all have to pay more to look after our teeth, but maybe if we start paying more, we'll value our dental health more? As has been stated, we have the cheapest dental system in the western world and also some of the worst teeth. Connection?

Good luck all

thebigfatox

ardgour_girl wrote:

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.

The explanation, I'm afraid is: politicians lie.

Dora_the_Explorer_5

ardgour_girl wrote:

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.

I understand that at the moment around 90% of dentists have signed the new nhs dental contract. That means that nhs dentistry is available, it simply needs to be tracked down.

clipboard2

Day 1 April 3rd 9am appointment. My last NHS dentist emigrated to NZ leaving me mid treatment with a "clinical need" for 3 crowns on my records last Autumn. Having read up (thanks Toothsmith) on the situation I was ready for a 'negotiation' with new dentist. The NHS dentist was happy to do 1 NHS crown, but would only fill the other 2. I was not happy for this to happen as said 2 teeth had a long history of being drilled, filled, and filling falling out again within 4-6 months. He offered to do 3 crowns separately as 3 'separate' treatment courses (cost to me 3 x 189 quid -noooo!)

The haggling continued, rather like in a Turkish bazaar, eventually we struck a deal!!

I agreed to have my 1 crown done "independantly" (cost 200 quid - only 11 quid more than the the NHS charge) to help the dentist (he gets to keep the 200, rather than 189 going to PCT) and the dentist agreed to fill my 2 teeth at the back (whats left of them) with private top quality white fillings ("like superglue" he assured me), but to put it down as NHS work, and charge me only the 42.50 NHS charge.

"But don't tell anyone about this" the dentist urged.