To think that dental care is now only for the wealthy in the UK

No nhs dentists here either. My private one doesn’t require a monthly fee or insurance. If I decide to go, I pay for that specific appointment.

I think the dental hospital type places have to help you if you have an emergency and no dentist.

God knows I’m on a 3,000 person waiting list. I pay for private prescriptions toothpaste and a host of other gels and potions to keep my teeth as well as I can. My plan basically is wait till they are all so fucked I pay on credit to remove and replace the lot. Cheaper overall all that fixing one by one.

I’ve just paid £350 for a private perio (East Mids) and was quoted £6000. And I’ll need extractions and braces after (neglected as a child) or it’ll keep happening due to how overcrowded/wonky my teeth are.

Zero chance of affording it that, it took me 5 months to save up just for the initial consultation.

Exactly!
There are no NHS dentists where I live right now. When a list opens, the wait is still years in the future.
When I was under an NHS dentist, being on benefits meant I had the absolute minimum of treatment...

Btw - I admire that you're relocating. What winds me up is people on Mumsnet who bang on about how much better it is in country X, but who don't go there. Instead, they stay in the UK running it down.

We can't get an NHS dentist so have been paying private. I now need fillings replaced at £500 and a root canal fix which has been quoted at £1,800 with a 60 % success rate. If it fails it would be an implant at £2,200. This one tooth could cost me £4,000 but I just can't afford it.

That is good, until you need some serious treatment.
I need to see a periodontist, pretty desperately. Treatment will run into the £thousands.

In theory. In practice there isn't any NHS dentists in a lot of areas. So there's no dental care available unless you can pay.

I pay £16 per month for 6-monthly check ups and 3-monthly hygienist. It includes annual x-rays as well.
DH pays less (I think around £12 pcm) but only sees hygienist once or twice a year. DC are both free, either they are NHS or included in our fees, not sure which.
I think it is a good service actually.

@Sazzling I think within 2 years Lithuania will have a higher standard of living than the UK and Poland a few years after so there's 2 options.

I'd much rather spend my money in a poor country where it will help the local people than in the UK where the simple basics are extortionate.

I've just fallen out of love with the UK if that makes sense. Like a relationship that's over and it's because we have a population willing to vote for the Tories and brexit. I just don't belong here.

Oh, I agree that std of living in the UK is on the decline for the average person. It is still higher than a lot of places, but of course taking your money to a poorer country means you can live better as you are relatively rich compared to the locals.

I had hoped you had found a place where everyone was better off - rather than the easy "move to a poor country" option.

I could leave based on the work I do, but you can't beat the British countryside and hills. I live in it and I'd miss it. Plus many other things. I might do annual health and dental checkups overseas as part of a week in the sun. Because if I did get something like cancer, I'd be terminal before I'd ever get the NHS to run some tests, let alone do anything about it.

This happened to me very recently. And when I read the details of the plan that was replacing my NHS treatment, it turned out to cover very little. Two check ups a year, basically and 20% off the cost of private work!

My teeth are good, so I am just going to pay for a check up once a year, and "self insure" ie put some money aside if I can afford it for potential future work.

Mine did this recently and I went straight on the NHS site and found a new one. So in this area YABU but I recognise not all areas are so lucky

@Sazzling yes Portugal would be a possibility but Brexit...

Our plan is to go to Asia, don't want to say where as outing. But it's a place with a lot of foreign investment, a growing economy, a young well educated population. We have connections there.

Cost of living is 80% cheaper than the UK. We could retire and have plenty to live on including private health care. DCs will emigrate too. The UK has had it's heyday and even with a change of government I can't see things improving. We're heavily in debt and brexit is like an anchor dragging on growth.

Sorry to be doom and gloom but it's the reality.

I had to pay privately for my DC as they had toothache and the NHS wouldn’t see them. Outrageous!
I have decayed teeth and can’t afford treatment for myself. It’s shocking.

I'm still got a NHS dentist but if she gave up I totally agree op....it's a huge worry

What do you get for your £19? That's what I pay and I get 2 dental check ups a year and 4 hygienist appointments. I recently needed antibiotics and a root canal and it was all included. I did have to pay extra for x-rays.

I called my local dentist the other day to see if I could register as a private patient. They said myself, DH and the kids could all register as NHS patients. Don't know if it's because we're in London and lots of people have moved out to the burbs post covid but I nearly fell off my chair

It's almost like it's being slowly privatised right under our noses! I've recently accepted the way things are and signed my family all up to private dental care. Denplan is £30 a month for a family of 4. I know not everyone could spare that atm and it's tough. I'm just hoping we will always have access to free emergency care, cancer care, mental health, maternity services etc

Where to? The whole of the west has the same issue - the population curve (more old and fewer working age) for a start. I know Mumsnet thinks the EU is a utopia where everything is dandy, but I don't buy it.

Any solution, I'd think, would be around going somewhere wihth lower wages, so we'd be richer in comparison (eg Portugal) rather than there being a place where everything is lovely and plentiful for everyone

What do you think?

Yanbu. My DC's dentist treats NHS patients for just four hours a week. It's a nightmare juggling appointments between school and work.

Private dentists are private for everyone. I also have a private dentist in uk, and she only sees children up to age 16 on nhs and then switches them to private. some will only take fee payers only....the tony blair govt changed the contracts so not worth doing nhs, contracts not been amended since.

I do worry about things like oral cancers going amiss, due to the lack of NHS dentists.
Dentistry is more than just checking for holes in your teeth. Bad oral heath can have an effect on the rest of your body

@Sazzling I agree. But how do you do that? I think you have to practically be on the poverty line before you get eg free dental care.

We have a dwindling tax base which are net contributers to public services and growing demographic who are net users of public services.

The tax burden is going to get higher and higher while the standard of living is going to go down.

IMO the best option is to emigrate.

It is a fucking disgrace that people in one of the wealthiest countries in the world can’t access affordable dental care.