Petem95

I've recently changed jobs and previously used to go to a private dentist as I was part of a dental scheme in work, so I basically paid £12 per month and could claim back 100% of the cost of checkups and scale/polish and 80% of the cost of any work, but I've recently changed jobs and my new employer doesn't offer a similar scheme.

As a result I'm having to sign up with a dentist and just pay the advertised fees. Question is should I go NHS or private? What are the pro's and con's of either?

I want to get decent treatment, but I don't want to pay more than I need to. I just called the nearest dental practice who said they don't offer NHS sign ups and a checkup + scale and polish is £80 which is quite a lot and I expect I'll need work too as I've not been for a year.

Is it only **** dentists that take on NHS patients, or do I need to keep ringing around to see who does?

andy97

iTrader: (1)

You will be extremely lucky to find a nhs dentist with a vacant client list. You will end up paying for a private dentist. It always grates on me that I have to pay which always seems to be a minimum of £40 for a check up

urban

iTrader: (1)

I pay approx. £160 a year to a private dental plan.
That covers me for everything I require bar any laboratory work.
I go to the dentist 4 times a year, two with dentist, two with hygienist.

LSherratt

iTrader: (1)

Every year I have a check up and hygieneist, maybe an x-Ray at a private clinic and it's always around £100. Luckily I have no fillings and my teeth are in very good condition but I dred the day when I'm older when I will need work done....

Milneragain

I lost my place with my NHS dentist & had to go private for a while.

It was going Ok until me & my wife had had appointments after eachother one day.

I went in first, was there for 20 mins, the dentist did the check, did an x-ray, & a clean, & the exact same thing for my wife.

I went to pay, & we were charged £70.00 each.

£140.00 for 40 mins work, that price just killed this golden goose as far as I was concerned.

We started looking for an NHS dentist after that, & were able to find one before our next check-up was due.

Now it costs us between £12.00 & £14.00 for a check-up, & about £19.00 for a filling.

Thank God for the NHS.

Petem95

Milneragin, do you find the standard of treatment has been as good with the NHS dentist?

Those prices are a lot cheaper. I'm tempted to either go down that route or look at joining one of these schemes like dentiplan or whatever it is

hodgy0_2

most NHS dentist do private work - I though


maybe it doesn't work the other way round

DanGlennon

We have 3 or 4 nhs dentists around here and all advertise for new patients all the time and have done for years now. Quality does differ as I was a member of one nhs dentist and received bad treatment. I joined another dentist and their great, top quality work and a good friendly environment.

300gnspitzer

I think the dentist do the same work privately and for the NHS. and charge the same price, the difference is the subsidy paid by the NHS.

Milneragain

I would say that the standard of treatment is every bit as good as you would get with a private dentist.

There are certain things that are not offered by my dentist under his NHS contract, but you can still get them privately through the same dentist.

I had to get a filling for example, & the dentist asked me if I wanted the NHS silver one at £19.00, or a white one at the private cost of I think it was £69.00 or £79.00.

I took the NHS one at £19.00 because it was at the back, & because at 47, & having been with my wife since I was 21, I am too long in the tooth, (pun intended ), to be worried about how I look.

wrx300scooby

I pay £12 per month which includes everything apart from lab work, I think it's a good deal

Barxy

The dentists are the same whether private or NHS... Its just who pays for it.

David Lock

Before she retired my wife had her own dental practice and offered both NHS and private. Exactly the same treatment except for a few things not available on NHS.

Find a caring NHS dentist and you will be fine or go to Poland for good private on the cheap.

Keep smiling. dl

thenewgalaxy

I routinely see people on both NHS and independently funded schemes, in a variety of settings.

A routine dental checkup is exactly that - an examination of the dental part of your body - and what is expected of dentists is governed by the General Dental Council, as set out in its guidelines and standards. That is, a checkup should always have certain things assessed.

All checkups should as appropriate include both assessment and documentation of

1. Medicine and Pathology of the skin and muscles of your mouth and associated structures

2. The teeth, in terms of decay

3. The gums and bones that hold the teeth in

4. Any associated risks that may contribute to disease

5. By implication, that should lead to a diagnosis and an agreed course of action based on the findings

In terms of what I've said above, the only difference between that part of an examination as a patient on the NHS and independently funded is how the treatment is paid for.

But then the differences start arising, let's stick with the NHS for a minute.

The NHS checkup now should also include something called an "Oral Health Review" which is a set of Yes/No criteria which assesses a patient's dentition and risk factors in detail. For example, it asks if the patient has any fillings on their front teeth or has lost any teeth in the past due to dental decay, whether they use fluoride toothpaste, smoke or have any evidence of gum disease etc.

The emphasis of the OHR is that an appropriate recall interval for the next checkup can be decided and highlight the importance of where preventive advice has to be given to a patient so that they are aware of how to improve their oral health.

Generally, you will only receive dental treatment via the NHS if you have a need for it.

An independently funded checkup will not usually follow a system like this and what is performed above and beyond the basic standards is up to the dentist providing the examination.

This allows the dentist to steer towards the emphasis of what is bothering a patient, and quite often what bothers someone is not necessarily what is important to their health. For example, a crown that has a different shade to the others can be assessed and discussed on a private consultation for replacement to improve its appearance, whereas on an NHS appointment you would not generally use your patient list's valuable time to do this, assuming there was nothing else wrong with it.

Private consultations are also used to assess specialist issues, such as the provision of dental implants or adult orthodontics for cosmetic purposes - these would not be provided in general dental practice on an NHS checkup. They are generally too time consuming to carry out and the time has to be paid for.

I mentioned the word "need" above. Generally with a private checkup you will have the ability to request things such as a polish to remove stain - not necessary for your health - and can request other treatments as you so desire if they are appropriate to do so.

There's a lot of information I'm missing out here, and I've tried to remain as neutral as I can with regard to explaining it because realistically there are no disadvantages to either it is generally down to what a patient wants.

LSherratt

iTrader: (1)

Bit like boob jobs then really NHS will very rarely pay but you can request from a private practise. NHS will focus on the essential issues whereas private will consider appearance based work and all other routes at the request of a patient...?

thenewgalaxy

Yes, the NHS system is part funded by the taxes we pay and there is a limitation with regard to funding. Essentially it will see you to "dental fitness" or a path that'll steer you towards that. Regrettably, dental fitness is not always what people want and the most common sources of dissatisfaction concern the replacement of missing teeth and colour of crowns and fillings.

Private work is effectively whatever ethical and appropriate treatment you seek, within the confines of a budget that is specified by the patient.

As I suggested above, patients will tend to seek the type of care they are after before booking an NHS or Private appointment.

But if you are desperate for treatment and cannot find an NHS space, specify your aims when you go to the checkup or even phone around for quotes on prices if budget is a major concern.

bustaMOVEs

iTrader: (31)

Here's a question for you newgalaxy, I was with a dentist local to me, decent private one and I payed full price every time.
Last time I went, I had a toothache, I needed a filling, clean and polish and X-ray, now he politely told me, you need an X-ray you'll have to see someone else etc. making up some mumble story. He gave me some antibiotics for toothache as said it was infected.
Now I can only think he politely chucked me out as I did miss the routine check up for a while (about over a year).
Can he do this? I thought that was unprofessional as he'd be making money off me, but thought better of someone else taking my money? I'm confused why he did this.
Seemed to posh for his boots IMO

LSherratt

iTrader: (1)

I go once a year for a checkup at my private. They always say every 6 months but when at the reception desk I just say a year- never been an issue and the dentist I see is a nice friendly guy. He even signed my firearms certificate as a reference when I needed it renewed .

thenewgalaxy

A dentist is not obliged to see you necessarily, and it sounds to me like he has seen you for emergency dental treatment and doesn't want to see you to carry out what needs to be done electively - and that missing the last appointment may be a reason for it.

Best way to clear something like that up is to pick up the phone and ask what's going on really, all we can really do is speculate.

In terms of making money, that is ultimately why all of us go to work but you'd be amazed what a dental practice costs to run. The profit margins on the average checkup are not a huge amount and some independent (e.g. Private only) practices have to run a very tight ship to make it worth their while.

Unfortunately patients can be quite flaky at turning up and some dental practices can have appointment failure rates that become big issues (I believe the industry average is 7%). So an independent practice can get very heavily punished by people missing even single appointments and this is why the payment plan schemes are very popular.

RobJenks

Australia also has its own issues with dentistry protocol.
My son had orthodontic braces fitted overseas , he needed them to be removed and but no dentist in Australia was prepared to remove them -They didn't fit them was their excuse.
He has since visited Thailand and they have now been successfully removed.

bustaMOVEs

iTrader: (31)

Fully appreciated but I hadn't 'missed' an appointment, I just dint book in for a regular check up that's all I can see I've done wrong.
He had the opportunity to tell me face to face as that's how he made his mumbo jumbo up saying, so and so would do it blah blah blah.
If he dosent want my business then fair enough I'd rarther not go if that's their attitude. (Must have too much work to drop clients like that).
I had gone there for a few years prior so not a new customer.
And then later they wonder why they are not making money.
Rant over

Matteeboy

Went private for a while to sort out a couple of issues; sorted them, realised how expensive it is for routine stuff, got on an NHS list; the work is just as good IMO, just not as thorough with advice.

Dave1980

Pete, as you know we both used to go the same dentist in our Youth. Since moving into bristol i have the exact same dentist who splits her time between the two practices.
Basically the same standard for a third of the price!.

Although i think if its a fair bit of work NHS dentists are told to extract more than repair but shouldnt be an issue if your teeth are ok.