NHS dentist charges

brook2jack

The current nhs system does not encourage over treatment if anything it encourages under treatment. It also rations what treatment and how much treatment can be given. Over 50 bodies can and do inspect dental practices and patients.


There are very stringent cross infection protocols and if you are concerned they have been breached then the first port of call is the practice itself who have to have a complaints system in place, and who will tell you who to contact if you are not satisfied with their response.


As an aside you dont catch gum disease it occurs because of smoking, cleaning problems etc.


Your wife is now at a practice she is happy at and hopefully will recieve the advice and treatment she needs to become healthy.


Finally you are right people should be given all options in a treatment plan. The reality is most of those options will be private but all repair work is never as strong as the original tooth which is why the most critical part of treatment is changing the behaviour and habits which caused the damage in the first place particularly if complex treatment like implants and multiple crowns are planned.

welshdent

Just wanted to chip in again as someone who pretty much carries out all their work within nhs courses of treatment. The nhs is just a brand although it is not considered as such by the general public. The system we work within is appalling. It financially punishes the dentist if a patient has a lot of dental problems. Problems that the patient caused not the dentist. That statement is not designed to draw sympathy because I'm well aware how the public holds us up with bankers for alleged over payments. But the nhs as a body is not in the dark ages. Some individual dentists may be. That's not because they do nhs work. It's because they are out of date with their knowledge. Nhs practitioners are well aware of the limitations placed on them by the system contrasted to te demands of the patients. Trying to square the circles can be extremely tough. If we had a bottomless pit of funding we could do loads. But the contract tells us we must render someone dentally fit. It's very vague and obscure. It will lead to conflicts on what you think is dentally fit and what we do. However those insisting on nhs work need to accept that their options will be limited. I hate the system. I hate that the doh bleat on about skil mix and using therapists to do simple work leaving us to do the complex work. Then slashing the funding on that complex work so much so that it would put me in negative money every day if that's all I did. I have to do the "simple" stuff to be able to pay mortgage believe it or not. I am most certainly not in the dark ages and can confidently say that I do better work than quite a few solely private dentists I know. I practice much of my work with a high powered microscope to drastically improve my Vision and lighting. But there is only so much I can do.
Pointless rant I know. Just wanted to say that "the nhs" is not in the dark ages. I actually think I'm quite up to date and ethical with my approach to dentistry and my patients

edit: any references made to "the nhs" refer to the dental system not medical

brook2jack

In general dentistry is a very personal affair. You can have bad dentists in a small family run practice and good dentists in a practice run by a company.

However in general you get a quicker turnover of dentists in corporate run multisurgeries surgeries and more stability in smaller personally run practices.