Why do i get Hygienest charges at the dentist

calleyw

brook2jack wrote: »

If the dentist did your check up as a NHS patient then they have to offer you NHS treatment for gum disease. This will probably not be with a hygienist and will be in a band two charge if you are in England or Wales.

I suggest you phone the practice and enquire why you were not offered NHS treatment and ask for a copy of your fp17dc estimate form which you should have been given as you are having a mixture of NHS and private treatment.

The fee given by the NHS no where near covers the cost of four or five appointments with a dentist or hygienist, but even so the dentist has to offer you treatment for gum disease if they have accepted you as a NHS patient. Do you sign a form each time to say you were having NHS treatment? There is no such thing as a NHS dentist , a dentist may treat some patients on the NHS others privately and you cannot assume you are an NHS patient unless you sign NHS forms.

However the most important thing is to get and follow advice about how you can manage your gum disease. It is never cured,just controlled , and that is by making lifestyle choices about smoking and cleaning effectively. You should ask whoever you see to show you how to clean effectively and well.

Yes I am NHS patient and signed the forms and paid the band one charge for my check up.

Will be phoning them up in the next few days to try and get to the bottom of this.

Thank you very much for your help on this one.

Yours

Calley

teddysmum

After she has done my checkup, my NHS dentist asks if I'd like a scale and polish. She does this immediately and the charge is just the normal band 1 fee.

DD265

My dentist will also do a scale and polish at the end of the checkup, unless I'm seeing the hygienist immediately afterwards. The exception is if we've squeezed a filling appointment into a normal slot, in which case there's no time.

I do pay privately to see the hygienist every 4 months though. I am not as conscientious about taking care of my teeth as I ought to be, I find that the hygienist does give a better clean as she has more time, and she's also more gentle. To me personally it's worth it but I can understand the frustration of being told to go at every appointment.

I have noticed since my old dentist retired and the new one came in, that they X-ray annually (I go twice a year) as a matter of course, and are a lot quicker to suggest preventative treatment. I think there's a combination of add-on services to make more money and trying to mitigate needing extra NHS work in the future.

collectors

I get the impression that most, but not all dentist are out to screw you. I was told by an NHS dentist that i may need a deep route canal treatment & they only do this privately as the NHS wont pay them enough. Price privately= £512.00
I had had a DRC treatment about 18 months ago at the same practice that took two visits at 10 minutes a time, which is no difference from fillings, & all was done on my normal NHS bill. So, How are they allowed to take what equates to £170.66 per hour from the average wage earner. (£170.66 / 60 * 20mins = £170.66)
Myself & i would say most readers hear don't earn anywhere near this sort of money.

brook2jack

A dentist cannot say they personally cannot do a root treatment on the NHS but can do it privately.

If a root canal is very complex then it may need specialist treatment. Essentially this is not available on the NHS so it would be a private referral. That can be within the same practice and will cost £400 to £600. It will normally take a couple of visits and around 2 hours in time. The cost of taking a MSC in endodontics (root treatment ) is £36,000 or more, an operating microscope £18,000 the cements used can cost £50 a go and the single use files £35 a go . The cost of operating a room in a dentists costs from £120 to over £200 an hour.

A simple root filling on a single tooth will take a lot longer than 10 mins and the consumables involved, rubber dam , single use files etc will cost more than the treatment fee.

collectors

brook2jack wrote: »

A dentist cannot say they personally cannot do a root treatment on the NHS but can do it privately.

If a root canal is very complex then it may need specialist treatment. Essentially this is not available on the NHS so it would be a private referral. That can be within the same practice and will cost £400 to £600. It will normally take a couple of visits and around 2 hours in time. The cost of taking a MSC in endodontics (root treatment ) is £36,000 or more, an operating microscope £18,000 the cements used can cost £50 a go and the single use files £35 a go . The cost of operating a room in a dentists costs from £120 to over £200 an hour.

A simple root filling on a single tooth will take a lot longer than 10 mins and the consumables involved, rubber dam , single use files etc will cost more than the treatment fee.

Ok, its expensive to run. But i am just living off my savings & the choice i get is, have it done privately for around £500.00 or have the tooth removed for around £50.00 on the NHS.
What about all the guys & girls on some sort of benefit from disability to being out of work that wouldn't have a hope of finding this sort of money.

brook2jack

It is the government who set the fees for NHS treatment. If they chose not to pay to offer specialist treatment for root treatment then it could be argued it is very difficult to justify spending hundreds of pounds saving one tooth when oral health could be secured by taking it out.

it is a difficult time for the National Health Service and in dentistry we can now save many more teeth than we used to be able to , but this comes at a cost. The average spend per year, per person treated on the NHS , including patient contributions is between 28 and 32 pounds. That will not buy much surgery time, let alone expensive materials , qualifications and equipment.

If we cannot afford some cancer treatments, treatments for macular disease etc on the NHS are we really going to massively increase the budget for NHS dental treatment so we can save some people a tooth ?

Rita2456

its a broken system that needs an overhaul. ask the dentist to give you in writing as to why he is not offering your polishing on NHS when he is already charging you for the correct band.

brook2jack

There is no clinical need for polishing. There are many things available on band one eg denture repairs , study models , biopsies, just because they are mentioned the dentist does not have to offer them.

If you have gum disease you should be offered treatment for it on the NHS.

If you have staining or tartar that you would like removing , but no gum disease , your dentist does not have to offer it on the NHS.

Bellisima

My new NHS dentist keeps pushing me to see the hygienist. This was despite saying I had no plaque at all! Ii have only seen a hygienist once and it was AGONY, so never again! We almost had a row over it. No other dentist has pressurised me into this before, but I stood my ground. I shall be seeing another dentist in my practice next time......