Rushed NHS extractions for free???

welshdent

cavework wrote: »

Thanks for this ,, so it usually takes at least 2/3 months for gums to shrink before NHS temp dentures need relining ,, but the cut off point is 2 months.
6 months at least before perm dentures can be made
No wonder so many people end up using fixatives and spend the rest of their lives choosing what they can and cannot eat because of NHS temp dentures!
Brookjack thank you for the explanation , seems we need more CDT,s available directly to NHS patients?
So people with temp NHS dentures have to wait 6 months plus for complete gum healing then have to pay again for perm dentures?

NHS direct access to clinical technicians will never happen IMHO. Firstly there is no option to claim for items of treatment - only a course of treatment (COT). A COT can have 1 or multiple items of treatment. It may be one scale and polish, it may be 3 fillings, 3 fillings and a denture or 2 dentures and a crown. They are still classed as either bands 1 2 or 3. Only a dentist is legally allowed to diagnose and treatment plan and only an dentist is allowed on the nhs to formulate an NHS treatment plan. Why spend more money allowing clinical technicians to do a single piece of the plan while a further sum of money then goes to the dentist to potentially to other bits ... Conversely at present they pay the dentist once to do all of it.

i.e. you need 3 fillings and a denture. That is a band 3 COT. The dentist would do all of it for a single fee of £X where X is roughly equating to the cost of making that denture and the fillings are in effect freebies.

OR ... you need 3 fillings and a denture. The dentist does the fillings for £Y. Then you pop along to the techie and he is pain £X.

If you were running the treasury you have just spent £X + £Y when you could have just spent £X

Simple maths for them. This isn't me saying I agree by the way. I hate making dentures. But everyone wants state funded dental care and that is the reality of the situation.
Also statistics show that less dentures are being made because less people are losing their teeth so why would the DOH spend a lot of money making provisions for a treatment that is becoming less. My father is a dentist and when he qualified some 30 odd years ago he would have a few patients each day doing different stages of dentures. I can tell you I have exactly 3 patients currently having dentures made. I am primarily an NHS dentist working in a large population area. At the same time today alone I had 3 patients in for crowns or onlay type restorations and another one treatment planned for one. Yesterday I had another 3 and tomorrow I have 2 booked. Tooth retention is the future IMHO.

cavework

Tooth retention may be the future but looking at the present, due to the recession and do not forget drug use,I think the need for dentures will increase in the future.
Tooth retention is the ideal goal but only if it is affordable and there are many people who have not been able to maintain their dental health in the last few years who will face this situation.
Thank you to both Dentists for replying , I do understand you are doing the best you possibly can for your patients working under the restraints of NHS costs
I am not a Dentist , just someone who has gone through the procedure.

Toothsmith

In my experience people tend to spend a lot more on mucking up their teeth than they are prepared to to fix the damage!

cavework

Toothsmith wrote: »

In my experience people tend to spend a lot more on mucking up their teeth than they are prepared to to fix the damage!

Guilty as charged.. I ate sugary food , I drank alcohol, I only cleaned my teeth twice a day and I didn't floss
worst of all .. I was a smoker

oneconfusedgirl

Sorry just caught up with all the replies. Dads had the extractions now, so now just waiting on healing (currently day 5 post extraction) to then look at temp dentures.

Reading through the discussion, I'm a little confused. What is the difference between what a dentist would do with dentures, to a dental tech?

To make the dentures, does a dentist send off to a dental tech (not a CDT)? Then if a reline is needed, do they again send the denture off to a dental tech, or do a chair side reline?

Where does a CDT come into all this? Is this if you are going private you would go to a CDT?

oneconfusedgirl

brook2jack wrote: »

Relines are not covered by the initial denture fee on the nhs after the first two months in England and Wales. It is a band two charge.


Welsh dent doesn't have a CDT near him because there are only seven in the whole of Wales.

So does that mean if they are slipping/ill fitting (reline required) within 2 months of either being made, or within 2 months of being relined, then a reline would be classed as the same course of treatment?

cavework

oneconfusedgirl wrote: »

Sorry just caught up with all the replies. Dads had the extractions now, so now just waiting on healing (currently day 5 post extraction) to then look at temp dentures.

Reading through the discussion, I'm a little confused. What is the difference between what a dentist would do with dentures, to a dental tech?

To make the dentures, does a dentist send off to a dental tech (not a CDT)? Then if a reline is needed, do they again send the denture off to a dental tech, or do a chair side reline?

Where does a CDT come into all this? Is this if you are going private you would go to a CDT?

In my experience temp dentures could have been made prior to extraction and then fitted at the same time as extraction? This apparently helps with healing? Why did this not happen?
As to your other question ..
The dental technician is just that .. he/she is an expert at making dentures that fit. The first denture mould should have been taken by the dentisit prior to extraction and a set provided.. further down the road and as the gums shrink you should now be seeking the help of a dental technician to reline and make sure the dentures are capable of allowing you to eat comfortably..this might mean 2 or 3 visits over a 5 month period , but no way should anyone be told to put up with badly fitting dentures during the period their gums are healing and shrinking.. my reline and refit cost £60 but I don't need another, some people do , so in July I will get the Dental Tech to make the final properly fitted dentures as advised by him , by then gum shrinkage should be complete, if not we hold off
All your dentist will do is either make small adjustments or send them off to a Dental Technician and charge you for their time as well as the reline.
Trust me , the dental technician works much better if he has the patient in front of him..
Clinical Dental Technicians are private but they are the same people your Dentist uses
.They are licensed to work with the public direct

cavework

oneconfusedgirl wrote: »

So does that mean if they are slipping/ill fitting (reline required) within 2 months of either being made, or within 2 months of being relined, then a reline would be classed as the same course of treatment?

in answer no ..gums take over 3 months to shrink .. extraction and dentures cover 2 months , so first reline (if you are lucky) will be done by Dentist covered by NHS .. in that 2 months
Dentists knows that the healing process takes at least 4-6 months before perm dentures can be made ..so it is suck it up and deal with it and pay again on NHS or go private after that
That's why so many end up living with their temp dentures

cavework

Toothsmith wrote: »

In my experience people tend to spend a lot more on mucking up their teeth than they are prepared to to fix the damage!

One last post here...
people struggle enough trying to meet their rent, mortgage payments and other bills.. they also pay NHS contributions from their wages, that is compulsory.
When it is a choice between keeping a roof over your head, feeding your family or paying the bills, access to dental health for those working has been last on the list

Toothsmith

cavework wrote: »

One last post here...
people struggle enough trying to meet their rent, mortgage payments and other bills.. they also pay NHS contributions from their wages, that is compulsory.
When it is a choice between keeping a roof over your head, feeding your family or paying the bills, access to dental health for those working has been last on the list

Hmmm.

But if people saved money by not buying sugary drinks, sugary snacks and fags (none of which are compulsory to buy) then they might just find that they need to spend less on dentistry as well.

Win/win?