Dental Work Abroad

vfm

Bonnie sorry but your wrong. If somebody is living on a small amount of money but has savings (which they have earned and paid tax on, silly them saving for the future?) they are not entitled to free health care. You could say why don't they use their savings? I have been doing this. I don't mind paying reasonable amounts, however, when your charges are going to increase 800% from £30p.a. to £240p.a when you have required no work(luckily) for over 5 years then I think this is wrong.
I will continue to pay for my treatment but only when I feel treatment is now neccessary (therefore when I get toothache).
My concern lies with those on low wages who won't qualify for free dental care. £16,000p.a. relates to just over £300 per week before tax and N.I. then take off a persons living expenses such as mortgage,council tax, utilitie bills, expenses of getting to work etc. they don't have much to live on each week and any increase in dental charges will have a hugh impact on this. People who don't work will be taken care of, but these hard working people won't be.

I also am proud to live in this country. I was always proud of the fact that no matter how poor someone was they had the chance of a decent education and would be taken care of when ill.

I stick by my original comment that if more people 'say no to these new charges' dentists eventually will have to change their systems. I believe in direct action not writing constant letters.

Toothsmith I'm sure you mean well and I'll just leave you with a comment my father use to make to me 'The higher you climb the harder you fall' my own sayings are 'less is more' and 'No matter how much money I have, I can't buy another hour but I can always earn another pound'. This will be my final contribution to this thread I wish all well and hope that we can all treat each other as we wish to be treated.

Steve_xx

bonnie wrote:

Fair enough its the government, but why does everybody in the country want everything for nothing.
Name me one other country where you get free health care, i bet you can't.
We are fortunate in this country that we get everything free.
Also the man who lives on £80 would surely get free health costs as he earns under £16,000 a year.

Healthcare in the UK is not free, nor has it ever been. Prior to 1948 it was provided on pay as you go basis. Today it has in some part returned to that status. In the interim period the NHS was set up to provide healthcare on a uniform and equitable basis and the working population paid contributions from their salaries in order to provide that service. In one fell-swoop the introduction of this service sought to eradicate the gross inadequacies of the quality, standards and availability that had prevailed hitherto. The working population still contributes those monies, but the services provided by the NHS are being slowly withdrawn.

As VFM rightly indicates, free healthcare is not available to all on a limited income. A very modest amount of savings will exclude an individual from obtaining free healthcare of any kind. Also, should you have the misfortune to be an unemployed single person and you have funds in excess of around £16k then you will neither be entitled to free healthcare nor Jobseekers Allowance. Imagine the impact of a dental bill on an individual who occupies that set of criteria.

Steve_xx

Toothsmith wrote:

Yes - that's right but it is the NHS charge that has recently tripled.

It is quite possible that single items provided privately can now be cheaper than some of the NHS bands.

A single tooth denture, for example, on my price list is £130 - and I'm not cheap!!! On the NHS, a single unit denture would also be £189.

My cheapest filling is £40. If you needed that item on the NHS, you would pay £42.40.

For people who only need the odd thing doing every now and again, they would probably be better off finding a lower priced private practice.

This, of course is all part of the master plan.

An NHS dentist only gets the same amount of 'NHS Points' for doing one filling as for doing a mouthful. If they don't get enough points by the end of the year, they have their funding cut.

If someone comes in with a mouthful of work, then it is an awful lot of time, for very few points.

So - the ones that hardly need anything doing are better off private, the ones that need loads doing are uneconomic to treat.

Result - NHS dentistry finally collapses. This new contract is all part of the plan to push dentistry out of the NHS.

Perhaps on some occasions it may be cheaper to go private. However, let me qualify this because your reply above needs some clarification.

Your own offering of a single filling @ £40 compared with £42.50 on the NHS probably does not take into account any examination fee, whereas the NHS band does. Presumably there would need to be a charge for examination prior to your actually carrying out the required single filling? There might also be a clean and polish too which would be inclusive within the NHS band, but would be extra on a private basis. Suddenly, your £40 tariff for a single filling begins to look unlikely. In any case, we here are not arguing the point of a difference in cost of just £2.50. If that's all the problem amounted to we'd all be quite happy. But as we all know very well, the difference often runs into hundreds and thousands of pounds and it is this differential that has gotten everyones back up.

Your single tooth denture @ £130 looks promising, compared to the £189 it would cost on the NHS. Once again, would not your £130 be loaded by an examination fee too? Also, it is of course right to mention that the NHS's £189 tariff would be inclusive of any examination required, cleaning & polishing, any amount of amalgam fillings, any amount of crowns and dentures and bridges.

LizEstelle

I can only repeat that it is not just the perception of people on this thread but that of the community as a whole that dentists have:

1. Opted out of doing NHS work en masse
and
2. Started charging sky high prices for basic level work, let alone anything fancy.

This perception may well be open to question but perception IS what counts. If the dentists had wanted to outrage people they couldn't have made a more perfect job of it. They have, in effect, stored up trouble for themselves.

IMHO they have precious time left to try to defuse the situation before it all blows up in their face with some grand government gesture, designed to placate the electorate, involving the use of compulsion through law.

Doublespresso

Just to remind you, the name of this forum is "Travel, Trips & Holidays"!

I think it's time we moved on now...

Toothsmith

LizEstelle wrote:

This perception may well be open to question but perception IS what counts. If the dentists had wanted to outrage people they couldn't have made a more perfect job of it. They have, in effect, stored up trouble for themselves.

IMHO they have precious time left to try to defuse the situation before it all blows up in their face with some grand government gesture, designed to placate the electorate, involving the use of compulsion through law.

And there was me thinking that it was the truth that counted. Seems we do have the politicians we deserve after all.

My final comment is to repeat the wise saying, "Be careful what you wish for - you just might get it!"


If you really want an enslaved dental workforce, legally bound to provide really cheap basic dental work, even if it doesn't meet the cost of providing it.........

I'll send you a postcard from Australia, where I'll have emigrated, or maybe even Poland! I hear they have a shortage, and the cost of living there is really cheap and they have b*gger all in the way of regulations. I bet I could even throw my needles in a dustbin!

cullin

Toothsmith. I have enjoyed reading all these threads but the one point that consistently comes across is your bad manners and arrogance.

Toothsmith

cullin wrote:

Toothsmith. I have enjoyed reading all these threads but the one point that consistently comes across is your bad manners and arrogance.

Forgive me.

When people have a go at my profession with views based on predjudice and misinformation, I get a bit upset. Especially when they go on to say they aren't really bothered enough to explore the truth.

And when their views on how to solve it rely on breaking human rights laws then I am sorry if I seem to get a little short with them.

alison74

Doublespresso wrote:

Just to remind you, the name of this forum is "Travel, Trips & Holidays"!

I think it's time we moved on now...

Couldn't agree more !! Everyone is entitled to post their opinions but this thread is now more suited to the MSE arms

pwni

Lol and I couldn't agree more with you either Alison. :T

Do you think anyone would mind if I started a second thread with the same original question?