To be excited I got a place at an NHS dentist

I have an NHS dentist. Had an emergency appointment early September for toothache, was given antibiotics, which helped but was told I need a filling or possibly root canal. my appointment do that to be done is not till February….

Well I'm pleased to hear at least some people are receiving reasonable NHS dental treatment.

My adult DD has severe learning difficulties and was under the NHS Special Needs Dental Clinic.
However, my DD is - as many special needs patients - extremely anxious and does not understand what is happening so it is impossible to just conduct a simple check up, let alone the other treatment she has needed over the years, without some form of sedation.

Guess what? The Special Needs Clinic doesn't offer any form of sedation. Unbelievable!!
(This clinic is purely for people with serious special needs.)

I have had to transfer my DD to a private dentist where it costs at least £800 just for the sedation before anything else so a check up costs close to £1000. God help any parents who can't afford it as of course DD just has her benefits.

These severely disabled people are treated as if they should just walk around like extras from Les Mis by the NHS. 😡

Some dentists won’t do a root canal. They are very time consuming. Crowns etc are much better private, materials wise etc . Some NHS won’t do white fillings in back teeth, either .

Ive recently got a private dentist, I was really scared the cost was going to be horrific. Its not that terrible and the care is amazing.

Trying to get an NHS dentist is ridiculous

I work in nhs dentistry. I thought the proposed changes don't happen until April? If they are immediate then no one in government has actually informed us.

No, it is the same with my DP and his NHS dentist too (same surgery, different person)
With my previous one, she told me what work I needed, and when she found out that I was exempt from paying, I suddenly didn't need anything doing anymore.

In that case it sounds like you have a rubbish dentist, rather than it being an NHS specific issue. Are there other dentists at the same practice you could swap to?

I really don't. I have expressed concerns to the dentist and he just says my x-rays look fine. Never mind that some of my back teeth are eroding away and I am in pain.

There are no free dentists, not even NHS.

Our nhs dentist charged my DH over £300 for a denture when a wardrobe accident knocked his front tooth out. Could you please explain to me how that’s free when he had to actually pay in full for the band 3 costs in full ?😂🤷🏼‍♀️

Have labour done something specific that makes you think this is down to them? Genuine question as I’ve not heard anything.

There are two dental surgeries in my town who regularly open and close their NHS lists so there is always an opportunity to register at some point in the year. Both are pretty prompt to kick people off the NHS lists if they don’t attend - I got kicked off during Covid, I’d called and they told me I couldn’t make an appointment because they were only doing emergency, then when they did open up properly again told me I’d left it too long to make an appt! I managed to get reinstated because my DD also goes there.

Dentists don’t count teeth. I’m also not sure what you think counting them will do? Whether you have 32 or 12 that won’t tell you if you have issues. If you don’t think your dentist is being thorough enough or you’re not sure what’s going on during the appointment then you could ask them to go through it all with you as they go. Just ask them if they’ll talk their way through the whole thing as they go.

What would you like them to do if you don’t need anything doing? Obviously no one can say if you need anything doing without seeing your teeth, but you seem annoyed you haven’t needed any work done? Most people would be happy with that.

I’ll probably have to leave after saying this, but I think free dentist should only be for people who can’t afford it.
I’m sorry if you are in the situation that you can’t afford to pay for your dentist privately.

Nothing to do with anyone on this thread but Im looking at other threads here on Mumsnet with people paying for private schools and then getting a free dentist. Then criticising if someone calls an ambulance because it’s a waste of NHS funding.

Again I am not saying anything against anyone here, it’s just a strange system.

I managed to register with an NHS dentist a few weeks ago. The previous practice I was with stopped doing NHS work when the only dentist that did it left around the start of the pandemic.

I had a slight toothache the other day and just strolled into a practice on the High Street, as I happened to be passing. I was gobsmacked when they said they were taking on new NHS patients. Had an appointment, infection was diagnosed and ABs prescribed, but the pain didn't go away. Made another appointment, they took an x-ray and I'm having root canal treatment next week.

We have 8 different dental practices in town and 2 in nearby villages, but none of them had been taking on NHS patients for years.

My Nhs dentist also just does a check for 2 mins. She just tries to get me to do private treatments. She's not thorough at all but next time I go, I'm going go ask her to count my teeth and so x rays etc
I'm not sure what I should expect though in a check up?

I’ve been with the NHS dentist forever, and I get scale and polish at most check ups, x rays when required. I had a deep clean six months ago. No different to my DH who’s with denplan. Presumably your teeth are great and require no further treatment!

There’s definitely been a change - our local dentist has been advertising all over the local Facebook pages for the past couple of months that they’re taking on NHS, and they used to have a long waiting list.

Not true. The NHS I go to does a full check of the entire mouth, including under my tongue, takes regular x rays and then I'm in the next room for the hygienist who does a very thorough
My guess is you probably take very good care of your oral health and hence your check up is quicker. As they say, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

I have just moved to a totally different area of the country. I'd had an nhs dentist for more than 25 years where i used to.live. I could not believe how difficult i found it to source an.nhs dentist. After 12 attempts i finally found one.

While I can’t stand visiting the dentist I am so incredibly grateful that I have an NHS dentist. Early November my right top back tooth basically exploded while I was eating a pork scratching. The tooth splintered, filling fell out. They sorted me out an extraction on the 3rd dec as it wasn’t especially hurting. It was brutal but they were great and did their best despite the tooth being broke, they warned me there could be issues. They know I have dry mouth syndrome and am on immunosuppressants etc. on the 23rd dec I woke up in agonising pain with a a shard (?) sticking out of my gum and a foul taste in my mouth. They not only squeezed me in on the 23rd within an hour for an emergency assessment and antibiotics for infected dry socket and bits left behind but the head dentist specifically told them to add me to the end of his list on Xmas eve so he could re-assess me again to see if it had improved. If not he would make a referral to emergency dentist/surgery. Luckily the ABs really took the edge off and Xmas Eve it was a bit better. Fast forward to New Year’s Eve and I got this giant overwhelming pain and dizziness and had to literally rest my head on the table. Twenty minutes lateri felt a bit better and tongue probed the shard and my sister sat 4ft away says what the heck is that clicking noise? My mouth was smoothing it and I sounded like a crab. Five minutes later the shard hard come out through the still open socket and produced a ton of blood and retained infection. It was glorious relief and horrifying all at the same time.

Thank God for nhs dentists!!

NHS patient here. Called on Wednesday morning about a weird lump in my mouth - was seen at 10am. Was thoroughly examined, given another appointment for 3 weeks, and not charged a penny.

Both my children have had orthodontic treatment. Yes, there have been waits, but the treatment has been excellent.

I consider us very lucky to have this available.