Dental Plates about 65% cheaper

lema

Hi, My mother was recomended to get her dental plate for about 1/3 of the usual price by going directly to a dental laboratory. She has since heard of others doing this too. It seems you can skip the dentist altogether, as the laboratory take the moulds themselves and so the dentists must be putting a huge markup on this whole process. Perhaps this works with dentures too, I'm not sure.

xxlaurissaxx

Yep It does. I got a denture that the dentist was charging £100 for, for £20!! Thats 1/5th of the price.

xx

Toothsmith

Dental Technician has to be a registered 'Clinical Dental Technician'. Registered with the GDC.

There are some ordinary dental technicians who do this too, but technically it's 'illegal practice of dentistry'.

It's a bit 'back street' and there's hardly going to be any come-back should anything go wrong.

Ok with the proper 'clinical' one though. But the one's I know charge very similar prices to me, and it's not much of a saving.

thecatsnose

Yep, my hubby is a registered dental technician, and the lab does repairs and new dentures to members of the public if they have time

jugglebug

As toothsmith says as long as the technician is a "clinical dental technician" then that is fine.
However you need to be careful that they are not just registered dental technicians, there is a difference.
One will be fully registered and insured to carry out the treatment.
The other won't and is practising illegally.
I hold my hand up. I am a Dentist who absolutely detests denture work.
hate hate hate it.
However there are no Clinical Dental technicians in my area so I have to do it.
There are plenty of uninsured registered but plain old vanilla dental technicians providing the treatment illegally but there isn't a lot I can do about it. Trading standards are not fussed as they feel there are bigger fish to fry.

As soon as one of them gets the qualification I will put his / her cards in my waiting room and refer everyone I can but until then it is something I cannot defend.

You can check if the lab you are going to is practising legally by going to the GDC's website where you can search the technicians by name.
http://www.gdc-uk.net/searchregister/

you are looking at the DCP register and in the drop down box choose Clinical dental technician. If they dont appear there then they are absolutely not allowed to provide new dentures direct to the public legally.
A few lines down you will see an option for Dental technician. These are the guys who are only allowed to make dentures after the Dentist has carried out the clinical steps. They cannot legally provide dentures direct to the public.