Harassed by dentist?

Just to put in my two penn’orth: a long way down the comments someone more or less said gum disease isn’t a big deal. I beg to differ. I inherited it from my mum. I didn’t take it seriously. I’m now having regular expensive treatment. I thought the worst risk was of losing my teeth. I suspected I was being pressured by my dentist. The last straw came when I told the hygienist that I had heart disease (also thanks to Mum). She said well, the bacteria from gum disease can infect your heart. I kept a straight face, went home and looked it up. And guess what? I was wrong and she was RIGHT. Please listen to the professionals.

So if a GP is worried something is wrong people panic but a Dentist and people cry ''they are trying to sell me something''

Suspicious. I once went to a dentist and was horrified to be told I needed six fillings. My precedents had retired. I went for a second opinion; no fillings needed! That was 15 years ago and I’ve never needed the fillings.

You are more likely to be sued , as a dentist, in the U.K. than anywhere else in the world. It started, really , with no win, no fee and is increasing year on year. The rate has doubled in the last ten years https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/115166/pdf/

On the NHS you will get a gum check it is called a BPE . That tells the dentist if you have gum disease. If you get a score of 3 or 4 then you should get initial treatment on the NHS which is based on getting you to clean more effectively. This will be with a dentist as the treatment loses the practice money and if a hygienist did it , it would lose the practice even more money.

Just having plaque or tartar is not gum disease and as NHS is not set up for prevention then you would have to pay for cleaning.

Where it gets difficult is if you do not clean effectively then treatment stops because there is no point in continuing to scale when tartar will reform after 24 hours if you don’t clean effectively. There is no point seeing a specialist or having more advanced treatment unless patient is cleaning effectively .

The 6 point measurement takes alot of time to do and is not done routinely , only after BPE 3 or 4 diagnosed and after initial treatment .

where it gets even more difficult is if you need specialist periodontal treatment because in many areas it is either not available or waiting lists are years long so , effectively, if you want to save your teeth you will have to see a specialist privately.

So the short answer is if you have gum disease initial therapy aimed at getting you to tackle the factors in gum disease eg smoking , diabetes and effective cleaning is available on the NHS.

In theory advanced treatment is available but in practice the NHS either does not fund it or waiting lists are years long so you would have lost teeth by then anyway, so have to go private.

preventive work, like routine scaling where there is no gum disease , is not provided on the NHS and has to be paid for privately.

@Lollygaggle are you in the Uk? I don’t know of anyone suing their dentist

I’ll admit I do love my dentist and hygienist but do feel bad when I’m asked do I use the inbetween brushes every day

@Lollygaggle so why isn’t gum disease treated as part of the nhs treatment? Why do we have to pay more for it?

why doesn’t the dentist do the full point check as part of the checkup and why doesn’t they treat the issue as part of the NHS treatment?

if they are held to account for it why don’t they treat it? Why do they force us to go private?

Don’t listen to the dentist who has not even told OP yet they need further treatment , just warned them two years ago they might?

Dont listen to the dentist who has spent years studying dentistry , has seen the OP for the past few years , has clinically examined them and seen their x rays , gum scores, plaque scores and bleeding scores?

Dont listen to the dentist who appears to be following the best practice as advised by the British periodontal society and specialist periodontists (gum disease specialists)? https://www.bsperio.org.uk/assets/downloads/SM3003_BSP_Layperson_Flowchart_Mobile_14_SCREEN_READY_With_URLs.pdf

Undiagnosed and untreated gum disease is the number one reason a U.K. dentist will be sued. It’s the number one reason a U.K. person will lose their teeth. It is implicated in diabetes, heart disease , miscarriages etc , but don’t listen to the person who has trained years to diagnose and treat it. Would you advise that with any other health problem?

I've was diagnosed with gum disease many many years ago. My dentist explained it can be genetic and not just down to how you brush

he said he could refer me to many expensive treatment centres but no one could keep on top of it better than the hygienist so recommended 2 * 3 months appointment then 6 monthly afterward. My gums have gone from 4's to 0's in this time but some problems to flare up which we work on

my dentist always just probed the gum once whilst my hygienist does front back and side readings

don’t listen to the upselling dentist

Glad for you , but OP has diagnosed gum disease and stopping what they are doing to oil pull or even adding 20 minutes a day of oil pulling has no scientific basis quackwatch.org/ncahf/digest24/24-33/

Works really well for me. My teeth are whiter and my gums stopped bleeding

The dentist diagnosed gum disease two years ago. They said OP may need root planing etc but needed to improve cleaning and gum health first. so monitoring and improving gum health for two years before proceeding with further treatment is hardly upselling treatment . Root planing etc is standard treatment for gum disease that has not responded to initial therapy. OP has not had this treatment recommended yet , they were just warned they might need it.

The same dentist did a check up which routinely checks between 25 and 50 different things . As a result of double checking the OPs records they realised they needed to do an additional check which is time consuming and would have needed another appointment any way.

If any other health professional reviewed records and then contacted a patient for a needed health check would you call that harassment? OP has not asked not to be contacted so as far as the practice is concerned there is an outstanding health check that should not wait that needs to be scheduled.

Well said 👍

I'd really recommend an Emmi-Dent toothbrush. It's really good for removing plaque without scrubbing. They're on Amazon.

One dentist is constantly trying to upsell expensive treatment, the other forgets half the examination. Then they harass her constantly calling to make another appointment. They sound unprofessional and a bit shit. If you don't want bad reviews, don't be shit.

Can I ask why?

OP has gum disease , they are being treated for it , the dentist wants to do further checks to see how the gum disease is progressing . The treatment is following best practice ie initial therapy to improve cleaning and gum health before assessing whether root planing , gum surgery etc is necessary. OP knows they have had problems in past controlling the amount of tartar in their mouth.

Surgery has contacted to make appointment for further checks as soon as , on reviewing records , they realised more measurements needed to be taken . OP has not asked them not to contact , just put them off.

Gum disease is often a silent disease and often picked up too late to stop damage.

In what way has dentist acted to justify not only leaving but trying to destroy their business through reviews?

Block the number, go to a difference practice and leave them an honest review on Google.

I’d be looking to change dentist, either within your current practice or going elsewhere.

Thank you , you have restored my confidence in , at least, some of the general public .

You are right , it’s because gum disease is an inflammatory disease it would appear to be associated with many other health problems .

It’s why it’s astounding that a clinician who has gone over and double checked records and therefore wants to be more thorough in the monitoring of the OPs gum disease is subject to so much opprobrium when in any other sphere of healthcare they would be applauded for being so thorough.

It's interesting the number of people who wouldn't trust a professional who realised they had made a mistake and immediately contacted the patient with a plan to rectify that...
I mean,in an ideal world no-one would even get anything wrong but in RL it happens.
The lesson here for professionals seems to be that people would be happier if they just let any mistakes ride.
Weird.

@Lollygaggle Thank you, interesting. I'm sure I read that the bacteria in mouth plaque, gum disease or decay or something like that are the same as found in the joints of rheumatoid arthritis sufferers. Isn't there a link with Alzheimer's too?

I would go for a second opinion have you got a private dentist nearby you can go to