Current dental hygienist charges, bit shocked!

[ginjenny]

I rang my dentists this morning to enquire about a routine hygienist appointment. They are taking bookings however the cost has almost doubled and there is an extra charge of £8 for the PPE. This will take the total of an appointment to over £100! This seems a huge increase, although they did explain it's now a 40 minute appt instead of 30 minutes as they will be doing manual descaling! The descaling used to be done by a machine like a powder pressure washer!

I'm feeling pretty shocked but wonder if this is the "norm" and I should just pay up and get my teeth done anyway given the covid circumstances now!

Could you find an NHS dentist?

Sounds quite reasonable to me. Reminds me, I need to book an appointment.

Manual de scaling shouldn’t take that long. I could do a check up, x-rays and a scale and polish in that time. The main delay time wise is the complete clean of the surgery and changing PPE.

When you can only see half as many patients I guess you have to recoup the losses somewhere!

That’s Normal now. We have extra cleaning and notes writing time. And the patient pays for the ppe
It sucks but the business will be /Has lost money And be expected to work to a new normal standard

I read a statistic that up to 70% of dentists will go out of business in the next few years

My (private) dentist hasn't increased their costs and aren't charging for PPE.

I thought NHS dentists had PPE supplied by the government?

@Strawberrycreamsundae don't be daft.

Ring around OP. I managed to find an excellent local dentist who does direct access (do I didn’t have to join the practice as a patient). No charge for PPE and I had AirFlow for £70.

AirFlow - I didn't know it was called that! I loved having my teeth cleaned with that!

Definitely no NHS dentists near me or even close unfortunately!

Many of the other private practices are still closed or only taking emergency treatments!

On the advice here, I've managed to book a direct access appt with a hygienist for £75. This is the standard charge and was told no extra charge will be added.

Great 👍. I’m glad this has helped people.

Can anyone recommend a water flosser please?
Sorry to hi jack OP

@justanotherneighinparadise, thanks. Just hope the appt goes well.

I was told by me dentist that because the rooms have to be left for an hr between patients they have had to reduce the number of clinicians working. Also all treatments require 2 people now, as there has to be a dental nurse using suction at all times as dental treatment can be an aerosol generating procedure so obviously puts the staff at much higher risk of covid. Don't forget anyone dealing with the mouth is putting themselves at risk of exposure, which is why do many ENT consultants became poorly at the start. They are trying their best to keep their businesses running I suppose, which includes the increased cost per case of seeing someone. This is how they explained the increased cost to me anyway!

@Arrarker

Can anyone recommend a water flosser please? Sorry to hi jack OP

I like the counter top ones as when I looked a few years back the cordless ones all seemed to have issues with the battery or leaking. I’ll add a photo of the one I have and like but I can only see it on eBay at the moment. On amazon they gave a similar one but by Waterpik. Just really scrutinise the reviews.

@justanotherneighinparadise Thank you!

It's £119 for a hygienist appointment here - and no bookings until October