NHS dentists-now like a needle in a haystack.

martin57

Hi there,

I was overdue an appointemnt to get my teeth a look at, so went to my regular dentist to get an appointment, soonest was 6 weeks ahead and was also told that the dentist was converting all of his fee paying nhs patients to private patients. Although I fall into this catogory I was told that I would have to talk to the dentist about this when I saw him, so for 6 weeks I was a bit worried whether he would still treat me under the nhs or not.

Anyways after talking to dentist he said that he's still treat me under the nhs but God knows how long this may last for.

It seems that now most dentists will only treat existing nhs patiests who dont have to pay any fees atall and if you pay the nhs charge they will convert you to private. There is absolutely no obligation on them to treat you as an nhs patiest as they are self emplyed contractors.

Does anyone know the average cost of the most common private treatments like examination scale and polish and fillings etc so that we can make a comparison to the nhs cost?

This may seem not a very important topic to a lot of people but believe me if you haven't seen your dentist for a while or you are looking for a new dentist then you may well get a real shock about not being able to get nhs treatment.

thoughts and views appreciated.

thanks

martin57

Dollytrollop

Martin57, how high is the sky???? A dentist can charge absolutely any price he wants to for private dentistry. I find that the flashier the surgery, the more expensive his tmt. You can pay anything from £80 to £900 for a simple filling. maybe more in some areas. So he is the only one who can give you HIS prices.

arkonite_babe

AFAICR, teerah and toothsmith are both dentists. teerah is from NI, so hopefully she will see this query and be able to answer it for you

dmxdave

I am with an NHS dentist at the moment! (Who is not taking on any new NHS patients) Last December I went for my routine checkup and needed two fillings. "Do you want me to do them now as we have time?" OK

Ten minutes later I had two fillings that did not come under NHS and cost me £100 plus the inpection and clean at £15.63 or so.

I was not told that these were not covered under NHS at any time, is this right?

martin57

Hi again everybody,

Well I have been told that a dentist is not oblidged to tell you before treatment (unless of course you specifically ask) that he is treating you under the nhs. As far as I understand it, if you dont specifically ask the question you may be treated thinking worongly that you're nhs and when you see the receptionist to pay then you may find out that you are in fact private.

It would be great if some dentist on here can give us an idea of what average private charges are for common treatments, but somehow I doubt that we are going to get this information.

A few mths ago I was not worried atall about being able to get nhs treatment thinking that all the problems was in England and other parts,
but how wrong I was.

I'd urge everybody to mention this shortage of nhs dentists to anyone who you meet in your travels with anything to do with government, but maybe that won't help either but we can but try.

Martin57

knowledgeman

My dentist went private and whilst my annual cost is now maybe double what it was under nhs I get private care, insurance, the service is far better, the practice stays open far longer hours and generally the standard of care imo is far higher

The cost to me is £9.50 a month for 2 check ups, 2 hygienist appointments and 20% off everything else

For 12.00 everything is covered except lab costs

Tbh most private dentists arent all that more expensive than NHS costs were and those who did receive completely free treatment are normally not forced onto private

Toothsmith

Dollytrollop wrote: »

You can pay anything from £80 to £900 for a simple filling.

That's a bit over the top!

But you are right that the only figure that really matters is the price your dentist is going to charge.

Dentists need patients. They are subject to market forces just like every other business.

The patients he retains as private patients will be exactly the same patients who saw him on the NHS. A dentist 'going private' does not throw out all his patients, and then attract some mythical cohort of Ferrari driving super rich who were just hiding around the corner waiting for a dental practice to start charging sky-high prices.

So - although it will be more than the artificially low NHS prices, the guy will not want to go out of business, so his charges will reflect what his clients can afford.

Bear in mind though, that depending on how much you VALUE your dentist might affect what you deem to be affordable.

One of the things about going private is that you retain the patients that like you and value your services. The ones that don't like you, or think you're going to rip them off, disappear elsewhere.

This tends to make the job much nicer!

As to the bit about being told if you're on the NHS or private. It is up to the patient to check if they're being treated on the NHS, but it's not really in the dentist's interest to have a whole load of patients !!!!!! off about their bill - it's hardly a practice-builder, so they really shold tell you, and give some idea about costs whether you're NHS or private.

martin57

Hi Toothsmith,

Thank you very much for your reply. Its good to hear it from the horses mouth so should I rephrase that from the dentists mouth ...lol.

I was just wondering if you give us an indication of what you would consider a fair charge (private patient) for say (1) examination (2) filling (3) Tooth extraction (4) scale and polish.

Now I'm not asking for your specific charges but rather maybe the average of what other dentists you know might charge.

The reason I am asking is that then I can compare the extra costs involved to probably the better care I might get, with shorter frequency between appointments. Present is 6-8 weeks.

Hope you can give us some idea on this and thanks again.

martin57

fabwitch_2

My Dentist in Brentwood takes both private and NHS patients and has a list of the NHS cost on the wall and advertises the private charges also. He was offering teeth whitening done privately for £300

Toothsmith

martin57 wrote: »

Hi Toothsmith,

Thank you very much for your reply. Its good to hear it from the horses mouth so should I rephrase that from the dentists mouth ...lol.

I was just wondering if you give us an indication of what you would consider a fair charge (private patient) for say (1) examination (2) filling (3) Tooth extraction (4) scale and polish.

Now I'm not asking for your specific charges but rather maybe the average of what other dentists you know might charge.

The reason I am asking is that then I can compare the extra costs involved to probably the better care I might get, with shorter frequency between appointments. Present is 6-8 weeks.

Hope you can give us some idea on this and thanks again.

martin57

Probably easier to give my charges.

I operate in a nice market town in Nth Yorkshire. (Costs vary according to location. City centre practices tend to be the dearest)

An initial examination wiith me would be £76

A regular 6 monthly check up is £37, with an extra £35 if I do a clean and polish.

A visit to my hygienist for a clean up costs £59.50

Fillings vary from about £50 to £85 depending on size, location and material used.

An extraction would cost £79.50.

Hope that helps.

martin57

Thank you very much Toothsmith for your kind help. Its good to have an indication of what the private costs are likely to be.

regards,
martin57