Is my dentist a rip off merchant?!

anna_24

Dentists do not have to offer treatment under the NHS, and they don't have to offer it to everyone. Many people find it a problem to find a dentist to treat them under the NHS, although there is a list of NHS dentists taking on patients somewhere (I can't remember where it is, but it might be the PCT website). Those that do offer it, can "close their doors" to additional NHS patients, and will then treat others as private.

welshdent

Firstly thanks ts for the kind words :-)
Second re the costs. As a comparison I'm currently staying with my old nurse for a few days in her new home in Australia. Lions tour btw :-)
She is working at a local practice and knows a thing or 2 about dental treatments after listening to me prattle on for 6 years. Her practice here, a local family care practice charge $1000 per root for a root canal treatment. That means for an upper molar not counting anything at all but the root filling it costs $3000. That's quite standard for here from what I gather. The problem we have in the UK is the fees the nhs command bear zero relationship to the true costs. Meaning I think we get a very warped and artificially reduced idea of what fees should be. An nhs fee of £40 for root filling plus coronal filling will make any private fee look extortionate.