Dental treatment. - Private to NHS

Mayeve

Hello

I had a dental check up with my NHS dentist just before I moved from London to County Durham 3 years ago. Just as I was thinking of registering with a new dentist locally, Covid restrictions struck, and now, no nearby dentists are currently taking on new NHS patients. One (BUPA) practice that I emailed has explicitly stated they do intend to open their lists again once they’ve caught up with the backlog of their current NHS patients. 

They, and all local practices who won’t take on new NHS patients at the moment, do have capacity to take on private patients. 

I have no dental issues so could certainly wait things out for now and see if NHS treatment becomes available somewhere local within the next year or so. However, I actually want some cosmetic treatment (sort a couple of crooked front teeth, and maybe have whitening if my teeth aren’t too stained) that would have to be paid for as private treatment anyway, and would like to get this done sooner rather than later. 

My question is, if I had such treatment as a private patient now, would I later be able to cross over to being an NHS patient, for general check ups and non-private treatments, in the same practice if they do open their NHS lists again?

I suspect the answer is no, but I’d like to hear if anyone knows for sure. 

brook2jack2

There is no guarantee that if a NHS place became available in the practice that you could swap over , it depends on how waiting lists are managed and if the local health authorities are insisting that people with pain/emergencies are prioritised. 

Likewise there is also no reason , if the practice has NHS capacity and is not on a restricted contract , why you could not change to NHS later on. 

However many practices may have restricted NHS contracts and will only see children or other vulnerable groups on the NHS so it very much varies from area to area and practice to practice. 

Mayeve

brook2jack2 said:

There is no guarantee that if a NHS place became available in the practice that you could swap over , it depends on how waiting lists are managed and if the local health authorities are insisting that people with pain/emergencies are prioritised. 

Likewise there is also no reason , if the practice has NHS capacity and is not on a restricted contract , why you could not change to NHS later on. 

However many practices may have restricted NHS contracts and will only see children or other vulnerable groups on the NHS so it very much varies from area to area and practice to practice. 

Thank you, some of that is new information to me.  I’ve spent the last few days on the Internet checking Healthwatch and other info sites, as well as looking at websites of dental practices for their private fees, my head is spinning. I didn’t come across anything about some practices having restricted contracts. The local practice I hoped to join (not the BUPA place) do state upfront on their website that while they’re not taking new NHS patients they will endeavour to see anyone in real need, on a one-off basis. So if I ever have an emergency situation at least I know I can go there. 

Other than that, I think my best approach could be to travel a bit further out to get the private treatment I’m after and, later down the line, if practices closer to me do open up to new NHS patients, I can switch to one of them.

But now I have to make a decision on which private practice, and I’ll be worrying whether I’m making the right choice - it feels a very big deal when I know I’m going to be spending into the thousands of pounds. And of course it’s not possible to just turn up on the pretext of picking up a leaflet (but in reality to get an impression of what the places are like). I’ve got to choose on the basis of website info and testimonials. I don’t know anyone around here who has had any private treatment. 

Ibrahim5

I had an NHS dentist for years and then had to go to a different private one for an implant. I then ended up with 2 dentists. One for my teeth and one for my implant. It's very unsatisfactory so I just moved to the implant one and pay privately for everything. It does cost a bit more but you are treated better because the dentist is happier with the arrangement. I really noticed it in lockdown when I got an appointment straight away while NHS patients were waiting weeks. If you want treatments that only a private dentist can provide it might be better just to go private for everything.