Dentist: Excessive charging?

phillipdarlington

Hello,
I finally managed to get seen by a dentist after 9 months (I lost a filling in March but because I had been abroad the dentist wouldn't see me and then would only see urgent cases etc etc).  After charging me £22.50 for an emergency appointment they have decided that I need 3 fillings and a root canal with a crown.  But the plan is being done in such a way that I'll be paying more than I think I should.  If all the treatment was done within 2 months then I would be paying Band 3 (due to the crown) plus the £22.70 emergency charge but they don't want to put the crown on the root canal until after 3 months which makes it a new treatment.  So I would be paying the emergency charge of £22.70 then the Band 2 charge of £62.10 for the 3 fillings and basic root canal and then 3 months later the whole of the Band 3 charge of £262.30 for when the crown is applied.  So for their plan I would be paying a total of £353.90 whereas if the crown was done sooner I would be paying £292.
And the dentist was really pushing for white fillings not silver which of course are private and pushes the costs up even further.
My usual dentist has retired and the new young dentist has obviously seen me and saw £ signs!
Any advice welcome.
Thanks
Phillip

Undervalued

phillipdarlington said:

Hello,
I finally managed to get seen by a dentist after 9 months (I lost a filling in March but because I had been abroad the dentist wouldn't see me and then would only see urgent cases etc etc).  After charging me £22.50 for an emergency appointment they have decided that I need 3 fillings and a root canal with a crown.  But the plan is being done in such a way that I'll be paying more than I think I should.  If all the treatment was done within 2 months then I would be paying Band 3 (due to the crown) plus the £22.70 emergency charge but they don't want to put the crown on the root canal until after 3 months which makes it a new treatment.  So I would be paying the emergency charge of £22.70 then the Band 2 charge of £62.10 for the 3 fillings and basic root canal and then 3 months later the whole of the Band 3 charge of £262.30 for when the crown is applied.  So for their plan I would be paying a total of £353.90 whereas if the crown was done sooner I would be paying £292.
And the dentist was really pushing for white fillings not silver which of course are private and pushes the costs up even further.
My usual dentist has retired and the new young dentist has obviously seen me and saw £ signs!
Any advice welcome.
Thanks
Phillip

As I understand it (I am not a dentist) root canal treatment is not always successful. Also it can sometimes be hard to find all of the root canals. So, if the crown was done at the same time it would be wasted if the tooth fails or if more work is needed to find a root that has been missed. My NHS dentist suggested waiting six months for these reasons.

Toothsmith

Seems a perfectly good way to split up the treatment to me - and sensible.
Dentists seeing £ signs for someone needing lots of NHS treatment completely disappeared nearly 15 years ago. 
The way to make a practice financially viable now is to try and upsell private treatment to NHS patients. There are perfectly reasonable ways of doing this and there are  ways that are a not so good.
This 'young' dentist doesn't seem to have tried to upsell you anything - so my hope is that they are just developing their skills on the unappreciative masses until they're in a position to move on to an environment where  good solid dentistry can be practised in an environment where the patients are more appreciative.

Aranyani

Toothsmith said:

my hope is that they are just developing their skills on the unappreciative masses until they're in a position to move on to an environment where  good solid dentistry can be practised in an environment where the patients are more appreciative.

Surely you just mean more wealthy?

What about the poor sods who will never be able to afford private dentistry, does their oral health not matter?

Toothsmith

I mean what I write - not what you write.

Aranyani

Toothsmith said:

I mean what I write - not what you write.

So what are your feelings about access to dental care for people on low incomes?  I am genuinely interested because it really comes across that you don't care at all. 

Toothsmith

That's not really the subject of this thread.

I have written before on why I feel the current NHS dental system is wrong, and what I feel would be a good way to run social dental care given the budget HMG currently spend.

What would be really interesting would be to see how you feel it should be run? 

Who would be eligible? What treatments would be available? Who would own the surgeries that it would be provided from? There's a few points to start you off 

Aranyani

I’m not a dentist, but I’ve never understood why oral health is treated differently from the rest of the body and not brought into the NHS system.  Well, I know the historical and political reasons, but it makes zero sense from a medical/holistic care point of view. 

You are a dentist, a health professional, I presume (hope) you went into the role because you cared about improving people’s oral health, but the people who often need the most support you don’t help.  I think what really bothered me about your post was the dismissive and unkind way you refer to NHS Dentists and patients.  That doesn't give the impression that you care about poor people's wellbeing but just hate the system, it comes across that you are glad you only deal with people with money.  I hope I'm wrong. 

Can you post links to your ideas please?

General_Grant

Toothsmith said:

Seems a perfectly good way to split up the treatment to me - and sensible.
Dentists seeing £ signs for someone needing lots of NHS treatment completely disappeared nearly 15 years ago. 
The way to make a practice financially viable now is to try and upsell private treatment to NHS patients. There are perfectly reasonable ways of doing this and there are  ways that are a not so good.
This 'young' dentist doesn't seem to have tried to upsell you anything - so my hope is that they are just developing their skills on the unappreciative masses until they're in a position to move on to an environment where  good solid dentistry can be practised in an environment where the patients are more appreciative.

In the OP - "And the dentist was really pushing for white fillings not silver which of course are private and pushes the costs up even further."  May not be very costly but I believe white fillings (if not for the front teeth) are not available through the NHS (the "silver" amalgam filling).

Floss

I've had 2 separate root canal treatments - one of which had to be done a second time due to inflammation of the remaining bits of root, luckily while I still had the temporary filling over the site. I guess that is why you being advised to wait between each step of treatment.