Problem getting dental appointment

Scotbot

Have cracked a tooth, have not seen a dentist since I moved to a new area. Managed to get an appointment with a dentist as a new patient and saw him Monday. He explained I need another appointment but because of Covid regulations they neeed to book an extended slot. (As it happens had heard about this on the  news, extended cleaning and PPE required if drilling teeth) Practice manager says she will call me later to arrange appointment. No call. Rang today was told by receptionist manager was busy she would call back.  She hasn't. I  get that I will have to wait a while for the appointment but I don't see why they can't book me in.

Anyone else had this issue? Should I try somewhere else?

Emmia

I'd look to book somewhere else - or physically go to the dentist and insist they arrange the appointment.

[Deleted User]

This is a problem all over. If you need emergency treatment you can call 111 but for now it looks like you will just have to keep pestering them for an appointment.

brook2jack2

There will be a backlog of months worth of treatment . You have had an initial appointment but you will be right of the back of the queue of people from March onwards who need treatment. 

Dental surgeries , because of agp precautions (drilling) can , if they have the kit necessary, only see 20% or less of their normal patients. 

Many practices cannot , as yet , even source the kit and get it fitted. Those that can can only make appointments a few weeks in advance since no one knows even what the immediate future holds for dentistry and the protocols dentists follow may change very quickly and with very little notice. I would not expect to hear anything for weeks because practices will not book more than a couple of weeks ahead to save chaos if eg lockdown intensifies locally or , conversely, protocols relax so that surgeries do not have to be left for an hour before cleaning can start after drilling. 

Frankly I am amazed you even got an initial new patient appointment, most dentists are inundated with a massive backlog of patients to be seen.

Scotbot

brook2jack2 said:

There will be a backlog of months worth of treatment . You have had an initial appointment but you will be right of the back of the queue of people from March onwards who need treatment. 

Dental surgeries , because of agp precautions (drilling) can , if they have the kit necessary, only see 20% or less of their normal patients. 

Many practices cannot , as yet , even source the kit and get it fitted. Those that can can only make appointments a few weeks in advance since no one knows even what the immediate future holds for dentistry and the protocols dentists follow may change very quickly and with very little notice.

I understand the backlog and the capacity issues but I was led to believe this practice has the necessary kit. I  was told they do AGP appointments twice a day (before lunch and last slot of the day). I  also understand if I have to go on a waiting list. What I don't understand is why the practice manager can't explain this to me.

Gers

Just call them back!  It'll save you all that fretting.

brook2jack2

If this is a NHS Scottish practice they are only allowed to see ten patients a day maximum. That's the whole practice and as there are few practices in Scotland that can do drilling procedures the chances are they will be a referral centre (one of only 71 in the whole of Scotland) so the most urgent cases will be prioritised.Two drilling procedures on  patients a day for the total practice is a tiny proportion of what normally goes on.   They will be inundated with phone calls. Many practices will have had to install extra phones and returning calls may be well down the priority list at the moment. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18605632.coronavirus-dentists-anger-amid-ludicrous-funding-row---warning-nhs-model-is-finished/

Scotbot

The practice is in England and fortunately they are seeing more than 10 people a day. Not much point calling back as I can't get to speak to the practice manager only the receptionist and it seems the PM is not being transparent and is struggling to deal with the exceptional circumstances. 

brook2jack2

Ok in England there will still be a massive problem in providing drilling treatment , two people a day is a lot less than even one dentist would do in a day.
Each surgery needs to be left for an hour after treatment even before cleaning can be carried out. 

You will have seen the precautions that even non agp treatment needs, hence a practice will be seeing less than 20% of its normal capacity plus having to catch up on treatment from the end of March onwards .

The additional problem is that if staff get sick that will hold things up even further and supplies of PPE remain difficult to get hold of and very expensive. 

As I said before I am amazed that you got a new patient appointment in the first place. I would prepare yourself for a long wait for a PPE appointment , and I doubt many dentists in the current climate of uncertainty will make appointments more than a couple of weeks in advance.

gozaimasu

I empathasise/sympathise. In 2011 I had a crown fitted by an NHS dentist, and it fell out in 2013. It's supposed to last waaaaay longer than that, and no I didn't eat toffees etc. I rang around a bunch of NHS dentists and none of them would see me because apparently having a tooth/crown fall out of your mouth is not an emergency. They told me I'd have to get on the waiting list for 2 years so I told them to F.O. Fast forward 7 years later and I still haven't been to a dentist so it looks like I have no chance of getting a "normal" appointment and will have to wait until the toothache is so bad that the ibuprofen etc doesn't make it go away. Only then will they see me.

My other option is to win the lottery and go private.