NHS dentist scale and polish included?

qwertyjjj

I went to see the dentists yesterday. Almost every dentists I have seen in ther past 10 years has done the scale and polish as part of the Plan 1 £16.50 NHS inclusion.
Yesterday, the dentists just poked around a bit, did a filling (so I paid Plan 2 for that) and that was it. No scale or polish and he said I could go to the hygienist for that (and pay £43 private).
Shouldn't it be included under the NHS cover?
Sounds like a bit of a con to generate extra money for the private part of their practice.

coldstreamalways

If you NEED a scale and polish to secure or maintain your oral health, it will be included. If your dentist doesn't think you NEED one, he can tell you to get it done privately. Whether you do that or not is entirely up to you. Did you hear your "gum grade?" should be a number between 0 and 4. I would only refer to a Hygienist for NHS treatment if the grade was 3 or 4. Other dentists may do differently.

There is a huge thread on this forum about this very subject, maybe search for that. Or failing that, maybe you could even ask your dentist why this has happened.....

qwertyjjj

coldstreamalways wrote: »

If you NEED a scale and polish to secure or maintain your oral health, it will be included. If your dentist doesn't think you NEED one, he can tell you to get it done privately. Whether you do that or not is entirely up to you. Did you hear your "gum grade?" should be a number between 0 and 4. I would only refer to a Hygienist for NHS treatment if the grade was 3 or 4. Other dentists may do differently.

There is a huge thread on this forum about this very subject, maybe search for that. Or failing that, maybe you could even ask your dentist why this has happened.....

I'm guessing gum grade 3 or 4 means bad?
He said he didn't need to see me for another year or so and there are no problems so everything would appear to be healthy.

I did ask him at the time whether the scale and polish would be done and he said it's up to the hygienist. He mentioned that they would do a clean, look at gums and offer general preventative advice but I've been told most of that before with regard to orange juice, fizzy drinks, etc.

Apollonia

This topic has recently been covered in great detail here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1211081&highlight=

But briefly, the NHS will only provide a scale and polish where it is clinically necessary for your dental health.

The Dept of Health feels that a lot of money was wasted on unnecessary scales in the past and so only if you have disease present will you be entitled to treatment. Prevention of disease is not included in the NHS contract. Cosmetic treatment such as stain removal is not included in the NHS contract.

(A dentist who provides unnecessary treatments on the NHS will be considered to be making fraudulent claims and could be struck off/jailed.)

However, dentists are also obliged to inform patients of all options available so if you have basically healthy gums, with maybe only a little staining present on the teeth then he/she has to explain what is available so you can make an informed choice.

Personally, I think those who are registered with a dental practice that provides NHS and private work have the best of both worlds - routine care provided cheaply but the option to choose to spend a bit more on items that are important to them eg crowns, veneers, scale & polish.

brook2jack

qwertyjjj wrote: »

Sounds like a bit of a con to generate extra money for the private part of their practice.

In almost every practice its the private part which subsidises the NHS part of the practice! Indeed in a talk recently one of the government advisors talking about the hugely expensive and controversial requirements for cross infection control admitted there was no NHS money available but that the cost would be partially offset by the private dental income.

There is very little profit in NHS practice and certainly not enough to subside private treatment

alison999

Here we go again

welshdent

Shall I pre empt it? We are all greedy money grabbing sheisters preying on poor defenceless individuals as we line our pockets forcing people to have improper private treatments. Oh and the government pays us far too much and we should have our "salaries" cut

coldstreamalways

And do our job out of the kindness of our hearts. Oh and be forced to work for the NHS because we went to university. You know, like all the accountants work for the government and lawyers and the like.

qwertyjjj

welshdent wrote: »

Shall I pre empt it? We are all greedy money grabbing sheisters preying on poor defenceless individuals as we line our pockets forcing people to have improper private treatments. Oh and the government pays us far too much and we should have our "salaries" cut

That is not what I'm saying but I'm sure you'll agree the reason that people feel hard done by is consistency, of which there isn't in the case of scale and polish. Some do it, some don't giving different reasons.

Is a scale and polish necessary for oral health? I guess that's the defining reason.
We are told to go to the hygienist for prevention measures, which we all know leads to better oral health in the future. However, if it's for oral health then shouldn't it be done as part of the NHS?

Toothsmith

qwertyjjj wrote: »

Is a scale and polish necessary for oral health? I guess that's the defining reason.
We are told to go to the hygienist for prevention measures, which we all know leads to better oral health in the future. However, if it's for oral health then shouldn't it be done as part of the NHS?

If you've GOT a gum problem, then a good clean is NECESSARY.

If you haven't got a gum problem, then it isn't.

Of course prevention is better than cure, and whenever you hear politicians going on about it, they say they want to 'Encourage prevention in NHS dentistry'. But saying that is one thing, and setting up an NHS dental contract that actively encourages (and pays for) prevention is another.

Currenty, as written, the NHS contract pretty much forbids prevention. (Although it is quite keen on painting fluoride on kids teeth, which I suppose IS good)

In my (private only) practice, I have nearly all my patients visiting the hygienist either 4 monthly or 6 monthly. But then I do what I was taught at dental school, and not what the Department of Health tell me to do.

Incidentally, I would disagree with Apollonia (Is it a coincidence that you name yourself after the patron saint of dentists?) about having private stuff at an NHS dentist is the 'best of both worlds'.

Private dentistry is more about the 'total package' than the nuts and bolts of the fillings & stuff.

I don't have anywhere near as many patients on my books as my NHS colleagues. Therefore:-

My appointments are longer - I can do better work if I have more time. I can see things I might have missed if I was trying to be quicker.

I can get my patients with problems in on the same day. For one thing, patients having problems is right down on when I used to be NHS - maybe because I notice a lot more at the check-ups and catch things before they become problems! But even so, people still have bits of tooth break off, or a heavily filled tooth flaring up with an abscess, and if they do, they're in that day. And we have treatment appointments within a few days. Not on antibiotics for weeks on end.

If patients have problems outside of surgery hours, then my answerphone has MY mobile number on it, or the mobile number of one of the two dentists down the road form me who I have a little rota with. My patients do not have to battle with a nurse and a computer via NHS direct. If necessary, I come out and deal with the problem.

If you're an NHS patient who pays privately for the odd thing, then you're still in the NHS system. You probably see different dentists every year or two, you wait ages for appointments. Your 'basic stuff' is rushed, target based, and things are likely to be missed. You are out in the cold if you have any sort of emergency.

Really, the price you're paying when you do decide to have something done privately will be similar to the prices I charge (because that's the 'market rate') - but with the dentist providing none of the other 'benefits' of being a private patient that someone in a private practice would enjoy. I would argue that the difference between an NHS crown and a private crown at an NHS practice, if you're still an NHS patient isn't worth it.

qwertyjjj

I think it's largely a difference of the way the NHS is dealt with here.
There is the doctors vs dentists thing.
People see the GP as free for everything and the line between NHS and private seems to be very clearly defined. Yet this is not so clear in the dental world. It is a perception thing based on people's experiences from yesteryear where scale and polishes were done as part of the NHS and all of a suddent they are only necessray if you have problems.
Let alone the prevention is better scenario - have the NHS put a cost on that whereby more problems may appear in the future?