Dentist overcharging-£3000 for Mouth Disinfecting

Voyager2002

Private dentistry in the UK is indeed shockingly expensive.

A couple of years ago I needed a treatment of similar difficulty, and since it required a high skill level I asked my cousin (recently retired after a career as a top dentist) for a recommendation. The dentist knew that I had been referred by my cousin, who knew him, and so presumably did not attempt any overcharging. Anyway, the bill would have been more than £3000 for a similar amount of time.

(In the end it was very much cheaper to go to Poland to be treated by a top dentist there.)

Undervalued

Voyager2002 said:

Private dentistry in the UK is indeed shockingly expensive.

A couple of years ago I needed a treatment of similar difficulty, and since it required a high skill level I asked my cousin (recently retired after a career as a top dentist) for a recommendation. The dentist knew that I had been referred by my cousin, who knew him, and so presumably did not attempt any overcharging. Anyway, the bill would have been more than £3000 for a similar amount of time.

(In the end it was very much cheaper to go to Poland to be treated by a top dentist there.)

I'd love to know how a patient makes a judgement as to who qualifies to be called a "top dentist"!

Toothsmith

Yes - I often have a bit of a grin at some people who call themselves 'top' dentists!! Especially if I knew them as a student, or knew an older dentist who had them as an associate early on it their career! )

welshdent

Voyager2002 said:

Private dentistry in the UK is indeed shockingly expensive.

A couple of years ago I needed a treatment of similar difficulty, and since it required a high skill level I asked my cousin (recently retired after a career as a top dentist) for a recommendation. The dentist knew that I had been referred by my cousin, who knew him, and so presumably did not attempt any overcharging. Anyway, the bill would have been more than £3000 for a similar amount of time.

(In the end it was very much cheaper to go to Poland to be treated by a top dentist there.)

Is it though? and what do you classify as private dentistry? Its a very generalised statement. In my experience some is expensive, some isn't. Some is perceived to be good value. Some isn't.

What you don't see as the patient is the costs involved in providing that care to you. It encompasses mandatory training costs, fees to cover the costs when said dentist is away at said training, indemnity, registration, professional memberships, bank loans and finance agreements for premises and equipment. Rent, mortgage, staff costs, cleaning costs, materials costs, website costs, practice management software costs, X ray software costs. broken equipment repair costs. Lab work costs to make crowns bridges and dentures. Capital investment for updated clinical equipment. 

Thats just a small selection of the costs involved in dentistry. Partly why NHS dentistry is in such a state is because unlike private care, NHS practices can not simply increase their charges to offset the massive increase in costs practices have been enduring (like many others) all the while HMG and the Welsh gvt have failed to increase the funding to the practices. Indeed it is on record that over a 10 year period dentists experienced an effective 40% cut i pay. That doesn't make the news like other professions though.  What you see in private dentistry is the practice charging what it believes it needs to charge to stay open, pay the staff and indeed pay the dentist doing the work, most of whom surrender around 60% + of the taken money to the practice before their own costs are taken out of the remaining 40%. The money paid to the practice is the only way they stay open. 

Dentists also aren't people who rock up one day and start drilling some teeth. There is thousands and thousands of pounds of personal investment for training that doesn't stop. Advanced courses cost many thousands to do. I estimate a cheap implants course to be well in excess of 30K to do it properly as an example. I have seen composite (bonding) courses advertised around 3 - 5K. 

Is £3000 a lot of money? Of course it is. Is it excessive? I have absolutely no idea. I do not know what was done, I don't now know what equipment they used. I don't know what skills the dentist has. I have no idea if they pay their nurses massively over the national average because they value them immensely and want to remunerate them fairly for the work they do. 

Ultimately as a patient you are of course led by advice but you aren't forced to have treatment. If the treatment works , your mouth is fully disinfected and you are meticulous with your own personal compliance thus saving all your teeth one may argue it achieved its aims regardless of how long the procedure took and how much it cost. 

Undervalued

Toothsmith said:

Yes - I often have a bit of a grin at some people who call themselves 'top' dentists!! Especially if I knew them as a student, or knew an older dentist who had them as an associate early on it their career! )

"Call themselves"? Oh dear! I was always taught that self praise was no recommendation!

Is it a bit like the "Super Vet"? I am never sure if that is a title he bestowed on himself or if the profession really does regard him as the chosen one?

ammiLy

It's a complicated situation. Unfortunately without actually seeing the patient nobody on here can give a verdict on wether the amount charged is reasonable. If you feel so strongly about it, definitely see another expert and get their professional opinion.

To me the more important point of the OP - a nervous patient looking back and feeling they have been taken advantage off. My advice is to put safeguards in place for the future. Ask a trusted person to come with you to appointments, ask for a note added to your records to say you need to be given 24 hours to consider your options (I believe some businesses do this for vulnerable clients), ask for someone else to have to sign off on treatments etc. Basically - speak to people whilst your mind is clear, you don't feel under pressure and can advocate for yourself. And if you can't do it by yourself, ask for help doing this.

Hope this makes sense