Dentistry = Highway robbery

baldeagle09

At least !!!!!! Turpin had the grace to wear a mask

baldeagle09

To say that the quality of work is far superior in going to a private dentist is ludicrous. I have had just as good, if not better treatment under the NHS

Toothsmith

baldeagle09 wrote: »

At least !!!!!! Turpin had the grace to wear a mask

If your dentist isn't, then his cross infection control protocols are probably a bit dodgey!

Toothsmith

baldeagle09 wrote: »

To say that the quality of work is far superior in going to a private dentist is ludicrous. I have had just as good, if not better treatment under the NHS

That's a bit hard to justify when an awful lot of the more advanced proceedures are not even available on the NHS.

He may well do all that he is allowed to do very well indeed, that is still possible on the NHS especially if you have an older dentist who has probably paid off most of his/her practice loans.

But - NHS dentistry, even done well, can never be superior to well done private dentistry just because of the restrictions placed on it.

Cr&p private dentistry does exist, and that's why a lot of my posts describe how to go about finding a good dentist. And just going on price is NOT the way to do it.

Parisien

TS, it seems from both your posts and others, that there is a considerable variation in both whats done and at what price......basically...if you pay more you get the job done as the dentist was trained/meant to do...ie meets his own school of dentistrys/ prof bodies minimum professional standards.

If you don't pay a much higher premium, and have to use NHS dentistry then you run the risk of shoddy work, crap standards and having your mouth massacred!

This is very sad and unacceptable.......end of.

I would dearly love to find good quality dentistry, at a reasonable price in my home town, but it aint easy!

PS Am in Omagh.

Toothsmith wrote: »

That's a bit hard to justify when an awful lot of the more advanced proceedures are not even available on the NHS.

He may well do all that he is allowed to do very well indeed, that is still possible on the NHS especially if you have an older dentist who has probably paid off most of his/her practice loans.

But - NHS dentistry, even done well, can never be superior to well done private dentistry just because of the restrictions placed on it.

Cr&p private dentistry does exist, and that's why a lot of my posts describe how to go about finding a good dentist. And just going on price is NOT the way to do it.

Toothsmith

Parisien wrote: »

TS, it seems from both your posts and others, that there is a considerable variation in both whats done and at what price......basically...if you pay more you get the job done as the dentist was trained/meant to do...ie meets his own school of dentistrys/ prof bodies minimum professional standards.

If you don't pay a much higher premium, and have to use NHS dentistry then you run the risk of shoddy work, crap standards and having your mouth massacred!

This is very sad and unacceptable.......end of.

I would dearly love to find good quality dentistry, at a reasonable price in my home town, but it aint easy!

PS Am in Omagh.

I completely agree Parisien.

Good quality dentistry takes time and care.

Dental practices - especially ones that ensure they comply with all relevant regulations - are expensive to run.

NHS fees are VERY low.

In order to keep yourself in business on the NHS, you have to achieve VOLUME. That means you need to work quickly.

In order to work at a slower pace, you need to charge a fee that still covers the overheads. Therefore, your only choice is to go private.

To make quality dentistry 'reasonably priced' (By which I assume you mean cheap), someone else (I.E Government) needs to pay the difference between the 'reasonable' price and the true cost.

This is the thing that Governments have singley refused to do for the last 15 - 20 years, and why we are now in the state we are in.

Anyone would think they wanted dentists to leave the NHS! (Which just happens to be saving them a fortune).

BTW - I would also fully support a much stronger policing of dentistry - especially if by some miracle more taxpayers money was forthcoming to provide it. As I said before, cr&p dentistry exists in private practice, just as good (but now sadly very basic) dentistry can be found on the NHS. It would be very important to root out the cr&p if the taxpayer was paying.

diamonds

waited 6 months from local dental school and still no appointment ( admin mess up !!! ) & students not back for weeks, fillings need done asap so my dad recommends his NHS registered private dentist

i go private because I have waited 6 months already and this work needs done pronto............

In one of the most impoverished parts of town, 20.00 deposit for appointment

Dentist took less than 2 minutes to look in my mouth, asked nothing, was not intrested in any information I was voluntering " yes you need 4 fillings "
ontop of that she was rude rude rude......not even a hi, " sit Mr Diamonds "


Reception " thats 25.00 please "



45.00 for less than 120 seconds..............thats 1350.00 per hour if she was all private patients, and where she is based in scheme town, I bet 99% of her clients are NHS

!!!!! she was, I'm back on Wed for 1 filling ( anyone care to estimate, I'm taking my old man into the waiting room with me whos had hundreds of pounds of work done recently

Toothsmith

diamonds wrote: »

waited 6 months from local dental school and still no appointment ( admin mess up !!! ) & students not back for weeks, fillings need done asap so my dad recommends his NHS registered private dentist

i go private because I have waited 6 months already and this work needs done pronto............

In one of the most impoverished parts of town, 20.00 deposit for appointment

Dentist took less than 2 minutes to look in my mouth, asked nothing, was not intrested in any information I was voluntering " yes you need 4 fillings "
ontop of that she was rude rude rude......not even a hi, " sit Mr Diamonds "


Reception " thats 25.00 please "



45.00 for less than 120 seconds..............thats 1350.00 per hour if she was all private patients, and where she is based in scheme town, I bet 99% of her clients are NHS

!!!!! she was, I'm back on Wed for 1 filling ( anyone care to estimate, I'm taking my old man into the waiting room with me whos had hundreds of pounds of work done recently

You can't just multiply £45 by 2 mins.

That would assume as soon as your bottom leaves the chair, someone else is sitting there and she's begun work.

There has to be a few minutes cleaning up the surgery between patients, and the time taken to get in and out, which may be quick for a fit adult, but some little old dear can take forever!

However, I would agree with you that this is not what private dentistry should be.

There are many dentists who still think that private dentistry is just charging more for exactly the same thing.

It isn't.

But - you dad's recommendation of going privately to an 'NHS registered' dentist is partly to blame.

I do not feel that you can get proper private care in such a halfway house. - Especially when you said that you thought 99% of her patients would be NHS.

If it is such a ratio, then basically she is still operating a practice based on volume and throughput.

There will be no time at all to dedicate to private patients, and I would very much doubt that the income she derives from seeing the odd private patient would allow her to invest in any different materials or equipment other than the stuff she has availble for NHS patients.

To get a proper private experience, you will need to go to a practice dedicated to providing private care. And that will be one with very little to do with the NHS.

This is why I ALWAYS ecommend visiting a practice to book your first appointment.

You cannot get very much information about the running of the practice by ringing around (Although telephone manor can give a decent first impression).

If you visit a practice, you can see how much money has been invested in it, how relaxed or chaotic it feels, etc.

Also - you should know beforehand how much each item of your treatment plan will cost you.

It is very bad practice to have a patient unsure of how much his/her next appointment, and total treatment plan will cost. It is sometimes hard to be exact - as sometimes things can change if something is better/worse than originally thought, but decent estimate is a must.




EDIT Sorry I didn't read your post correctly.

You said you went to the dentist your dad goes to, and that he recommended.

Did you see the same dentist? Or another dentist in the same practice?

Has your dad had bad experiences with the same dentist?

I would ask to see the same dentist as your dad, if it was not that dentist you saw.

Whilst going to the same practice is generally OK, sometimes there can be quite a difference between seeing the practice owner (Who will be there for the long term, and keen to maintain the reputation of his practice) and any associates, who may just be there for the short term.

Parisien

Here ya go guys.....its official!!!

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/health/article3329426.ece

References to Poland....

"The cheapest countries for treatment were Poland (€18) and Hungary (€8), the main destinations for dental tourists from Britain. Savings of thousands of pounds are promised by agencies that arrange treatment in these countries, even after paying the cost of flights and hotel bills."


Plus in Hungary labour costs are 32 times LESS than in UK!!!!!


PS I went to Warsaw in November last, was impressed, everything done to a high standard, was pleasantly surprised!!!

jamesey07

hi toothsmith, i presume your a dentist? if so could i ask how much dental nurses should be paid? it's just my girlfriend is a dental nurse but the dentist is always going on about how much overpaid they r, £6 an hour r slightly more she is on, also how much does a dentist make a week roughly? thank you