Dental Insurance Cost Cutting Plan Article Discussion Area

David_Mee

Dora_the_Explorer wrote:

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.

more governemnt spin that everyone is falling for - sure only 10% have definately not signed - but another 30-40% have signed "in dispute" i.e. the contracts (155 pages long) only appeared a week before that had to be signed - no time for anyone to double check things so this 30-40% could still pull out if dispute not sorted. Of the rest, what they fail to say is lots of these signed up to only see children - still counts as "signed" in govt spin but effectively "not signed" as far as adults go!

The system sets targets to be achieved which were supposed to be based on the work the dentist did a couple of years ago so basically they paid like for like - no extra space miraculously appears to see new patients.

Present money only "guaranteed" for 3 years, come April 2009 the health authorities can spend the "dental" money on whatever they like - as someone put it April 2006 NHS dentistry got diagnosis of terminal disease, April 2009 will be the funeral!! Don't hold your breath and start saving now!

BTW - Martin - why haven't you done articles on hairdressing and car servicing and vet bills etc etc - people spend a fortune on these but because we're used to having to spend no-one blinks And whilst I am on about article - its much better now - spotted one bit which grated - bit about crown costing "no more than £189" - to me suggests "might be lower some times" - its same as other bands - anything in band 3 ... you pay £189

Toothsmith

Dora_the_Explorer wrote:

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.

Even if this were true, (A lot of the 90% 'signed' have signed contracts that vastly reduce the amount of NHS work they do - but hey, they've still signed) that means there are 10% less NHS dentists than there were on 31st March.

And we all know how easy they were to track down then!

Toothsmith

clipboard2 wrote:

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.

I think there will be a lot of this going on in the wonderful new NHS dental system!

MSE_Martin

BTW - Martin - why haven't you done articles on hairdressing and car servicing and vet bills etc etc - people spend a fortune on these but because we're used to having to spend no-one blinks

Please read the
Guide to cutting the cost of MOTs
and
The Pet Insurance Cost cutting plan

which are both on the site. Also you'll find the latest email (as many before) has included how to get good salon haircuts for £1.20.

all the best

martin

David_Mee

MSE_Martin wrote:

Please read the
Guide to cutting the cost of MOTs
and
The Pet Insurance Cost cutting plan

which are both on the site. Also you'll find the latest email (as many before) has included how to get good salon haircuts for £1.20.

all the best

martin

My bad - was only joking

Noirmoutier

Hope I am doing this properly - not very used to Forums. My question is - does anyone have any experience of Dentistry abroad? I am tempted to get some cosmetic work done (replacing an old crown and a couple of new ones), but would be happier if there was some "back up" in this country first. I'm not sure that local private dentists would be too happy doing follow up work under these circumstances:)

David_Mee

Noirmoutier wrote:

Hope I am doing this properly - not very used to Forums. My question is - does anyone have any experience of Dentistry abroad? I am tempted to get some cosmetic work done (replacing an old crown and a couple of new ones), but would be happier if there was some "back up" in this country first. I'm not sure that local private dentists would be too happy doing follow up work under these circumstances:)

Thats your problem - fine, go abroad, but why then should someone here take over its aftercare? You might have to factor in repeat visits for maintenance.

Sure, if someone came to me with a mouthful of crowns I wouldn't be able to tell where they had been made - however, if they needed replacing, you disappeared and reappeared with new crowns and expected to continue as before I may be inclined to tell you to take a hike!

Also, if someone's contemplating dental implants these can be done cheaper abroad - but if they use a system that no-one over here has the correct instruments to maintain you are scuppered - no-one could help even if they wanted to.

Dentistry is an on-going care business, not at all like medicine. If you appear at your docs with big boobs and a wrinkle free face you haven't stepped on his toes. With dentistry its less clear - if they were going to refer you to an implant specialist and you decided to go abroad, specialist won't care, but equally won't be able to help if there's problems. If the dentist themself can do the crowns and you go elsewhere for cheaper then fine, but don't come rushing back when problems!

Savvy_Sue

Well, I've been considering changing my dentist for quite a while, not been particularly happy with the NHS one I've got, so I've read Martin's article, and gone and got a quote from insuresupermarket for ALL the family (5), and astonishingly there was one quote there for less than £12 pm, which is eminently affordable! And compared to over £40 pm for the next cheapest.

Now, it's clear that this is at least in part because the maximum amounts paid out are quite low, but given that DH and the kids appear to have excellent teeth and mine aren't too bad I'm prepared to consider that risk. But can anyone explain what this means?

No cover is available for non-emergency (routine) treatment until Universal Provident have received a satisfactorily completed managed Dental Care Certificate of Dental Health from your nominated dentist.

Does that mean that BEFORE taking out this insurance I have to a) find a dentist who'll take us with this insurance rather than insisting on DenPlan; b) drag everyone off to the dentist for inspection and find out what the new dentist thinks about our teeth, probaby paying over £100 for the privilege; c) get any little (or not so little!) niggles sorted out at whatever that's going to cost?

Because the Key Facts Policy Summary says:

Non-emergency treatment – cover for non-emergency treatment is
not provided until your dentist has completed and returned your
Certificate of Dental Health, which is sent to you with your policy
documents.

Although I'm completely confused because the policy claims to cover routine treatment up to £1000 per year, but the KFPS says it excludes

Routine examinations, monitoring, tests or cleaning



And it also excludes

Repair/replacement of crowns

Renewal/replacement of existing fillings

And says this about pre-existing conditions

Dental Care is subject to a two year moratorium on pre-existing conditions. This means that dental conditions that existed before your insurance started will not be covered until you remain free of treatment and advice for a continuous period of two years.

Free of advice? Is a dentist ever not going to say "Keep flossing, keep brushing?" :rotfl:

The more I look at it the more I wonder if insurance is ever going to be worthwhile for me at all! As fas as I can tell, the teeth which have never been filled are fine, but as Toothsmith observed, once you do something to a tooth, that thing will need attention!

millie

I have had this Boots insurance for 2 years now and not had any problems claiming, my last claim was in January for £298 for bridge work, and it was paid in about 7 days

http://www.boots.com/content/pdf/ConsumerDentalCompleteVersion2006.pdf

Toothsmith

That really is quite an astonishing policy Savvy Sue!

I'm actually trying to think of what it COULD cover! Is £1000 per year for everybody, or £1000 each person?

Basically, you all would have to go to the dentist and pay a fee to be checked (But that would really be par for the course for any policy/plan).

The dentist would then have to fill in some form or other for each of you. (I charge for that - as I've said before, these forms can be a right pain in the ar....Neck!)

If the dentist thinks anything is not 100% - it's excluded for 2 years. This would include something like a very early bit of decay, which might just be treated with fluoride over several consecutive check-ups - not being covered until 2 years AFTER the dentist decided it no longer needed special attention.

Replacement crowns & fillings - by far the commonest treatments for adults - especially in a preventative based practice - not included.

Check-ups, clean ups, and all the preventative stuff - not included.

So really, it's £12 a month to fix new decay, or to have badly broken teeth crowned, or root fillings. Or accidental damage fixed. And £1000 can easily be got through for the more major things like that

In itself, probably not a bad deal if it covers several family members. Kids are the most common ones to need new fillings, but stuff like fissure sealants and fluoride treatments and lots of educational advice could prevent that. And that wouldn't be covered.

I think anyone taking a policy out like this would have to reckon on spending at least another £150 per person per year in fee-per-item fees for check-ups/hygienist visits/repairs. When you add it together, it would make an average Denplan-type monthly payment (About £17 per person per month - for adults) seem pretty good value, as this would generally cover everything apart from technicians fees (The cost of having a crown or denture made by the technician)