Dental services

Mariolanza

Yesterday I eventually managed to see my dentist who I used to visit twice a year. 

I sat in the chair, expecting him to clean and scrape my teeth as per usual. Instead he checked them all with a stick, tapping here and there and giving advice on how to clean my teeth! 

When I asked if he was going to give me the hygiene service I came for, he lifted his eyebrows stating they no longer offered the service because of Covid. He said the whole building would need to be aired for such a procedure! 

However when I went to pay, the charge had practically doubled!

What are the rights of consumers in such a case?

user1977

When you made the appointment, what did they (or you) say it was for?

The price is the price, if you haven't been there for over two years then of course its likely to have gone up (and their costs have certainly gone up because of additional PPE/cleaning/the fact they've had to turn away routine work for ages). You could have asked first.

TELLIT01

 My NHS dentist doesn't do the 'clean and polish' as part of the routine checks any more.  Even the private dentist I used until their prices went sky high stopped doing it as part of the routine check, but actually charged more for the checkup than when they used to include this as part of the service!  An appointment with the hygienist was available, at an additional charge of course.

Emmia

I can't remember the last NHS adult clean and polish I had, 10 years maybe - it's a chargeable hygienist service at the NHS place I go to.

elsien

If it’s NHS they will do the scale and polish if there is a clinical need, they do not do it just for cosmetic reasons. 

I’ve tried to see the hygienist instead but there’s a 6 month waiting list and a cost of £70. 

shiraz99

As above scale and polish is an additional service which most NHS dentists don't do anymore as part of the standard check up. Also prices have gone up to take into account all the extra PPE and cleaning they have to now do due to Covid.

Your rights or rather your obligations as a consumer are to check the prices of the service you're getting BEFORE receiving that service, not  afterwards.

One thing I would though is a lot of places, in particular hairdressers/barbers put up their prices by quite a bit over covid for the same reasons but now no longer use all the PPE etc, yet I've not seen them drop their prices back. Funny that.

The_Fat_Controller

My NHS dentist recommenced scale and polish in April 2022.

I live in Ayrshire.

born_again

shiraz99 said:

One thing I would though is a lot of places, in particular hairdressers/barbers put up their prices by quite a bit over covid for the same reasons but now no longer use all the PPE etc, yet I've not seen them drop their prices back. Funny that.

Have you noticed how your utility bills have increased, shopping etc. Speaking to my hairdresser. The money they got while shut was no where near what they would have taken. What they received covered the cost of the shop & a very small part of their wage. They still had all their normal living costs to find.

The holiday cottages we stay out. Lost £20K in bookings for the period Covid shut them down, they were fully booked for this period & had to refund people. Do you think they got £20K from the Government to cover this?