An urgent(ish) dental question - dentist advice appreciated please

breezerockz

McKneff wrote: »

Claire, could i hijack and ask you a question. As above i have Osteoporis and will have more extractions to come, mainly my top teeth.

Now, whether people are scaremongering I dont know but is there any difference between a lady dentist pulling teeth or male, is it quicker for a male
(and i dont want to be sexist here) ie strenght wise, but my normal male dentist has retired and i now have a young lady dentist am i worrying without cause that its going to take longer (and obviously in discomfort longer) because she is not as strong.

edit: have just seen another post on nhs vs private, off to look for pivate dentist,

thats a good questions, as i need two removed for getting braces,
and the new dentist at the practice i am at is a woman, (unfortunately nhs, didnt ask anything about my teeth etc, and was very rude about a filling that i needed doing, medium sized, one that the practice should have seen not long before when i was in )
anyway, i had big bloke(private) remove one of my teeth and he, after ages of pushing back and forth had to break tooth up to remove,
but maybe it will be different this time as that tooth was lowerL6 and teeth i need removing will be upper premolars.

anyone know of a really good pivate dentist in angus. i'd like a dentist that i can actually talk to/ask questions. this new one had some sort of a hissy fit in the corner in full view of me, all i asked was about the numbing jag for UL6, not making my whole face numb and about having to wait ten minutes? didn't realise i wasn't allowed to ask.
(have looked it up)
and i asked fo a white filling and pay the £80 charge, which she said she would do last time i saw her. and she said only if she could place it. anyway what a nightmare, considering they advertise cosmetic dentistry.

and i have been waiting for a scape and polish since january...

i couldnt even ask her about the LR8 which has made an appearance and filled LR7 gap and pushing teeth forward.

so i really should have found a private dentist.

brook2jack

Many of my friends are community dentists who provide a nhs salaried service. In this area there is already discussions on giving them uda targets the same as those in general practice.

This has caused much dismay because they realize it is impossible to provide a service for people with physical and other special needs and hit treatment targets.

Very few dentists are salaried because the treatment they provide is seen as very expensive compared to treatment provided in nhs general practice. (I believe the average cost to the nhs is £400 ish per patient in a salaried service as opposed to £36 ish per patient in general practice). it is a service that should be protected because it is the only nhs dental service that provides treatment to vulnerable groups without having to hit the ridiculous workrates and targets that self employed nhs dentists (the vast majority) have to.

ClaireLR

McKneff wrote: »

Claire, could i hijack and ask you a question. As above i have Osteoporis and will have more extractions to come, mainly my top teeth.

Now, whether people are scaremongering I dont know but is there any difference between a lady dentist pulling teeth or male, is it quicker for a male
(and i dont want to be sexist here) ie strenght wise, but my normal male dentist has retired and i now have a young lady dentist am i worrying without cause that its going to take longer (and obviously in discomfort longer) because she is not as strong.

I would certainly be interested to know this too - there is a man and a woman dentist at our surgery, I actually prefer the woman dentist but have chosen to go back to the male dentist for the extraction - unsure why really, I wonder if subconsciously it's because I am wondering the same thing

I'm also worried because the tooth I'm having removed is quite large (probably my biggest tooth) and am worried it wont all come out in one go, I'm pretty frightened of going to the dentist (any time) as it is, I hope this doesn't put me off more.

My last extraction was done under sedation but I had to pay privately for this - £220 for extraction, filling and scrape and polish under sedation. I wish I could afford that now but I can't.

Toothsmith

Eliza1001 wrote: »

Whilst browsing the MSE forums, I have often come across some extremely well explained and very sound advice from Toothsmith. However I have just read this post, and you could almost see the steam coming out of my ears!

As an NHS dentist I take great exception to several of the statements you have made.

I think you need to explain a bit more carefully that the NHS dental service you work in is a million miles away from a high street NHS general practitioner.

It's very easy to have a rosy view of the NHS when you get a salary cheque every month that is unrelated to how much treatment (or how many funding points) you've completed.

If a member of your family in a different part of the country needed a dentist would you recommend they sought out an NHS one?

I sure as heck wouldn't. (Unless they were lucky enough to have special needs and could be referred into a salaried service like yours.)

In many of my posts, if people seem to have good thorough NHS dentists who are applying the terms of their NHS contract correctly and not badgering people into 'paying extra' (I will not say 'pay privately' here as it isn't private dentistry they'll be paying for) I will tell them to stay with that dentist.

The problem is, in the last few years since the new contract, the number of people posting on this board who seem to have decent NHS dentists is getting fewer by the month.

The NHS' own figures has shown a staggering drop in complex treatments over the last couple of years and a huge increase in extractions and simple dentures. Surely you too must have read that over and over again in all the journals that drop through our doors? How can you still hold onto the 'wonderful NHS dental service' idea when the figures are there in front of you?

suki1964

McKneff wrote: »

Claire, could i hijack and ask you a question. As above i have Osteoporis and will have more extractions to come, mainly my top teeth.

Now, whether people are scaremongering I dont know but is there any difference between a lady dentist pulling teeth or male, is it quicker for a male
(and i dont want to be sexist here) ie strenght wise, but my normal male dentist has retired and i now have a young lady dentist am i worrying without cause that its going to take longer (and obviously in discomfort longer) because she is not as strong.

I dont think it matters male or female, either can do a quick painless job - or either can make a hash.

I have to say the wee slip of a woman I used to see ( think 5ft and perhaps a size 6) managed to pull a few of mine no problem whatsoever

ClaireLR

So are there two different types of NHS dentist? How do I tell which sort mine is?

Toothsmith

McKneff wrote: »

Toothsmith, for shame

I have regular check ups, and as i have major osteoporosi so every now and again i have to have extractions. Last time i had to have both my two front teeth out and a denture put in. I have always had excellent, extremely sensitive care from my dentist and all the staff there. When i had my plate put in i was so upset emotionally at actually losing my front teeth the receptionist made me a cuppa and sat with with because she could see i was upset.
However, when i looked in the mirror, my two front teeth which had been ever so slightly crossed for all my 50 odd years where now a perfect straight down, i felt better instantly.
I have never suffered any pain afterwards from any of my extractions, always had excellent after care. Have i just been lucky. I think not. My husband visits another pratice in the same town and its just the same there, nothing wrong with NHS dentist up here.

For some, even NHS charges are too much and much of the population even nowadays are walking around with rotten teeth and cant afford care. I think this is shameful that our country does this, especially to older people

If teeth out and dentures is what you want - then the NHS can deliver it as well as anybody. It's what it does best these days.

Toothsmith

ClaireLR wrote: »

So are there two different types of NHS dentist? How do I tell which sort mine is?

Unless you are a special needs case (Mentally/physically disabled, severe learning difficulties/ high social problems) you'll be with regular NHS, not salaried.

brook2jack

Unless the dentist you see is a community dentist or a dentist who works in an access centre (and this is a very small percentage of dentists) they will not be a salaried dentist.

Community dentists will only see those who cannot be seen in general practice because of medical or other limiting problems and there are normally enormous waiting lists for alot of their services.

Toothsmith

suki1964 wrote: »

I dont think it matters male or female, either can do a quick painless job - or either can make a hash.

I have to say the wee slip of a woman I used to see ( think 5ft and perhaps a size 6) managed to pull a few of mine no problem whatsoever

True enough, I've taken out many quickly and painlessly, and I've also made a hash of one or two as well (But painlessly!)

I had a lady associate who had spent a year in Australia. For a time of that, she'd been on Tasmania, in community, taking teeth out of Aboriginals (?sp?).

She was damn good at getting teeth out!!!