NHS, Wisdom tooth extraction, and free treatment - probably one for toothsmith

anewman

I recently had bad jaw pain that pain killers would not resolve, went to an emergency dentist who said it was decay in my wisdom tooth. He scraped away the decay, put in a temporary filling (which has now worn away) and prescribed a weeks course of amoxicillin and metronidazole (antibiotics). I wasn't registered with a dentist so had to wait 3 weeks for an appointment.

Just been to the appointment this morning. The dentist spent less than 5 minutes looking with only one or two pokes from one of those metal intruments. He said 8 either side at the bottom is majorly impacted (including the one that had decayed). He said these cases are usually referred to the hospital as a surgical procedure, that they were not accepting anymore patients for this procedure on the list at this time, but they were all too happy to refer me on to one of their other clinics for me to pay £150 per tooth to be removed.

The last time I had decay in a wisdom tooth I caught it myself luckily, I looked in the mirror and saw small pieces of the tooth were coming off. This was maybe 2 years ago. I went to the dentist (a different one) and he removed it straight away same day as part of the appointment, as free treatment. He spent much longer than 5 minutes looking, even polished my teeth, and did an x-ray to check there was no decay in other teeth. Although I can appreciate that the system seems to be in complete melt-down at the moment with many dentists accepting only private patients due to crap NHS contracts, and people are using pliers to get the job done, the dentist I saw today seems like a waste of space compared with the service I got before.

I'm wondering how come the big desparity in treatment. Can I get the tooth/teeth removed free by the NHS? Would I simply register with another dentist? Would I be wasting my time and should I rob a bank of £300 so I can get the treatment I supposedly need, or use a pair of pliers?

Thanks in advance

chartreuse_2

The govt changed the way dentists are paid for NHS work in (I think) April 2006. Good luck getting any sort of decent treatment on the NHS now

IME, the only dentists accepting new NHS patients assign them to a trainee, who's job is to weed out the ones prepared to pay extra for private treatment and get rid of the rest. And we all pay a fortune in tax & NI for this - surely it's breach of contract on the part of the govt! :mad:

If only consumer protection laws applied to taxes!

anewman

chartreuse wrote: »

IME, the only dentists accepting new NHS patients assign them to a trainee, who's job is to weed out the ones prepared to pay extra for private treatment and get rid of the rest. And we all pay a fortune in tax & NI for this - surely it's breach of contract on the part of the govt! :mad:

Yeah I had wondered. He seemed young and didn't appear particularly confident. It also seemed like he was trying to convince me to pay for treatment by saying the neighbouring teeth may require removal too if it's left as it is.

I guess the change in the contracts in 2006 is what killed off the nice dentist polishing my teeth, x raying, and removing the tooth the same day then.

Toothsmith

I would get in touch with the dental department of your local PCT to check if the bit about the hospital not accepting referrals is true.

I have heard of areas where this is the case, and in my own area, wisdom teeth referrals are 'vetted' throught the exceptional circumstances panel (God knows who they are, but I think they're more management than clinical based!) to see if it will be allowed, or whether it can wait.

It would be unusual to have NO service at all.

Your case sounds to me like one that needs to be done, and so you should be able to get an NHS referral.

If you find that you have been told a pack of porkies, then I would make a complaint, as they'll certainly be doing this to other people as well. You can complain anonnymously.

Once it's done, get yourself fixed up with a dentist you can go and see regularly, so that things like this can be caught early in the future.

Even a private dentist can be reasonably priced providing you go regularly and get things sorted before they become major problems.

Come 2009, funding for NHS dentistry is no longer going to be set aside just for dentistry, and it will have to compete with all the other pressures on the NHS.

If you think accessing the services are bad now, it will be even worse once that happens. There will be an increased pressure on privae places as well, as we still don't have anywhere near enough dentists in this country, even to see half of the population.

Find a good reliable dentist now, and stay on top of your teeth. That will be the cheapest in the long run

anewman

Toothsmith wrote: »

If you find that you have been told a pack of porkies, then I would make a complaint, as they'll certainly be doing this to other people as well. You can complain anonnymously.

Thanks very much for your reply toothsmith, very much appreciated
I'm guessing being a major city (Leeds) he probably wasn't telling porkies, but would I complain to the Dentist itself or an independent body?

Toothsmith

I'm not a million miles away from Leeds, and I'd say he WAS telling porkies there!

Ring up the PCT that covers Leeds (Not sure which one it is, they seem to change weekly!) and ask to speak to the dental department.

It's to them that the complaint should be made to as well.

LondonDiva

http://www.nhs.uk/servicedirectories/Pages/ServiceSearch.aspx

Search for health trusts and you'll be able to find out who your PCT is. I think there are 2-3 in Leeds.

The hospital may bounce back the referral if they decide that the work can & chould be carried out in house. We had a lot of referrals sent abck from ttwo particular practices because they couldn't be bothered to do simple procedures and were sendign patients to the hospital, on the other hand there are some borderline procedures that the dentist could do, but isn't 100% confident of and then refers accordingly which is what you'd want really.

noonesperfect

There is, or was, a dental teaching college in Leeds (the dentist I used to go to did some teaching there).

I wonder if you could get some of the work you need done there (in the same way hairdressing students need people to practice on )

I had to have my wisdom teeth out under surgery some 22 years ago at the same time as getting a maxially cyst sorted out.

anewman

The dental school is near Leeds University. I have been told that they hold emergency surgeries on certain days, but due to the mess of the NHS they are very popular and many people are turned away.

noonesperfect

Hi, I still think its worth a try - what have you got to lose?

Follow this link, it gives details on how to apply for treatment. Good luck anyway, hope you get something sorted soon.

http://www.dentistry.leeds.ac.uk/webpages/Prospective%20Patient.aspx

anewman

Thought I might revive my old thread. Filled in the Leeds Dental School website form but heard nothing back about that. Through the dentist-referral to hospital route, I am having two teeth removed on the 16th, so that's 11 months I've had to wait. Luckily it's only become infected again once during that time enough to require anti-biotic treatment.