Private dentist

Sncjw

Hi 

I have a dental problem in that my lower molar tooth has broken and I was terrified to get it sorted but this morning it's broke even more to the point theres some left causing me intense pain. 

Husband rang 111 to see if I can get seen at dental hospital as they don't do walk in now..got call back and they said find a dentist yourself.

Rang a dentist and the voicemail said ring 111. Waited till another one I was thinking of going to to open and they got me in at half 11 today but as private patient. Taking £85 quid up front. Anything to get me out of this pain. I was going to wait till after my holiday abroad in a few weeks. 

How come it's difficult to get emergency dentist on 111..

Toothsmith

Because the number of dentists willing to work with the existing NHS contract is diminishing at an exponential rate. BUPA closed 85 of it's practices a week or two ago. Those were mainly ones that still had a high NHS involvement.

It has been pretty unworkable ever since the 'new' contract was brought in in 2006, but the added restrictions (and then clawbacks for failing to hit targets) has hit remaining practices with NHS contracts hard.

Murphybear

I moved house 5 years ago and haven’t managed to find a dentist.  Fortunately my teeth are generally ok.   Last week, feeling a twinge, I tried again to find a dentist.  No NHS dentists within 25 miles and most aren’t even taking on new private patients.  One told me “we can’t take on any new patients as we haven’t got enough dentists”.  Sounds like it’s summing up the state of dentistry in the U.K.  

I live in a wealthy desirable area, I thought that might attract dentists looking for private work.  Just out of interest when 2 of the GPs retired last year they took on 3 new ones so they could extend the opening hours so working people wouldn’t have to take time off work. 

Unlike a lot of the U.K. we don’t generally have a problem in getting a GP appointment, my last 2 have been on the same day I rang the surgery 

brook2jack2

It's not that easy setting up as a private dentist , even in an existing practice, but even more so to set up yourself. 

An associate dentist working in NHS practice will not have the savings or earnings , very often , to finance the massive costs of  using and equipping a private practice . 

Most private practices will want dentists who are very experienced and have additional skills . It is very expensive to train in additional dental skills and again many NHS dentists struggle with both taking time off and financing these additional skills. 

However the crunch has now come when NHS dentistry is unviable and most dentists are now starting the process of preparing for private practice. 

However the big problem is in NHS practice a dentist will see many many more people a day and have a much larger patient list than privately . They will see , probably , 1/3 of the people they used to , so capacity will be down .