Is it impossible to get a NHS dentist in 2021?

[onlychildhamster]

I have to go private to get my teeth sorted. No dentists in my area seem to be taking on NHS patients. So I got quoted £460 for a root canal and £140 for a filling and also £595 for a porcelain crown.

What happens to people who can't afford it. It's quite different from 2018 when I managed to get a NHS dentist to see me on the same day, wasn't even registered beforehand!

List of NHS dental treatment prices below.

www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/dental-costs/how-much-will-i-pay-for-nhs-dental-treatment/

I'm lucky enough to be under the community dental services.

Simply not profitable for them. I asked one dentist and they said the NHS are currently providing the money to cover the costs so they have stopped and just do private dental until that changes. Onkg so much money NHS allocates apparently.

PP is right.
I need 2 crowns my share of the cost is 40% I can proof regular check ups and good dental care, so it is down to 30%. Check ups are free, treatment for children, too.

I was a private patient in an NHS practice and couldn’t get an appointment at all. Loose (new) crown, two broken teeth are not, apparently, an emergency.

You just have to be prepared to spend megabucks or let your teeth rot. Mine cost £1600 last year and will cost money again this year.

My blood boils as the government NHS website shows long lists of supposedly NHS dentists that don't take NHS patient anymore

@YogaLite

My blood boils as the government NHS website shows long lists of supposedly NHS dentists that don't take NHS patient anymore

We had this when we moved here 6 years ago - in the end a local practise took us on as private patients and our childen as NHS - and we were lucky to get that.

We pay into a monthly insurance scheme - I think it's denplan - so we haven't had huge unexpected bills with teeth yet.

I contacted various argencies responsible for NHS dental lists - seemed to be three in the area - and pointed out many practises listed said they hadn't taken on NHS for years and they said they'd update the lists - when I ckeked months later they hadn't.

My parents eneded up with different NHS dentists practises - though they get hit with private hygienist bills in same practice and one now keen kicked off list due to complex work and underlying medical conditions and can't get either private or NHS to take them on waiting on dental hospital now.

NHS orthodontal waiting list are huge as well - they wait years to get seen but at least they still exist and NHS patients get term time appointments and less options with timings - which I do understand but still awkward at times with work and GCSEs to fit round.

I was impressed with my NHS dentist recently.

I was registered but hadn't been since 2017, I phoned in July because I had intermittent toothache. Not agonising but every time I ate or drank anything.

I was seen within 3 days - my tooth had broken during the first lockdown and I had forgotten - an xray showed that was the one causing the trouble and it was too damaged to be saved as a large filling had fallen out too.

I was given a temporary filling and an appointment in one week for an extraction. (£65) When I had my tooth out I also made an appt for a regular check up in 6 months.

When I can get back on holiday properly I am going to a dentist in Turkey for some private work as a crown needs replacing, the NHS won't do it and I am not paying UK private charges.

I think this is geographical; my dentist is registering NHS patients and I've had a checkup and am booked in for a scale and polish next month.

I had to go private about 18 years ago. I moved areas and could not find an NHS dentist taking anyone on at all. And it's a big city, lots of practices around so no shortage of dentists, just no one wanted any more nhs patients.

It costs a bloody fortune, a clean is £75 and to stay on the practice list I must see the dentist every 6 months at about £30 each time. I have saved so much money because covid. I'm dreading having to go back. I generally dont need much but if anything goes wrong I dont want to be hunting around to find a dentist.

We are very lucky here (SC) to have an excellent NHS dentist nearby .Ver skilled and patient /kind as well

I'm very lucky to have found an NHS dentist when we moved to the county I live in 6 yrs ago. We have moved twice since then and I now travel and hour to seen him in order to keep NHS treatment. They do both so I'm in the lucky position to pay for private when suitable - eg I need a back tooth crowned so am paying for a porcelain crown as NHS will only do metal on a back tooth. But as I still qualify for free treatment since having my baby I can get fillings done on the NHS. I have a lot of teeth problems (I'm just unlucky) and have been seen at the dental hospital before now so I class my self as very lucky to have this dentist.

@womaninatightspot where are you? I am in London.

Yep. Three month lead time for a child's check up.

Seems to be no issue in getting an appointment for cosmetic dentistry though.

Like GP offices it's nice to see the Receptionists have been busy printing many, many instructive notices to decorate the front door and waiting room walls.

We all have an NHS dentist and they are still taking new patients DC have 6m check ups me and OH yearly, just had to get DD an urgent ish appointment and she was seen within 48hours and it wasn't urgent urgent so it is still good in some places. We are in the north east

@onlychildhamster Scotland north of the central belt. We're actually really lucky the local GP is decent and you can get appointments relatively quickly quite often the same day for sickly children. The local school has good pastoral care and high educational standards. Joys of
rural living

They are like hen’s teeth now! Excuse the pun. My dentist has gone private since lockdown. I managed to find an NHS dentist but the checkup he gave was rudimentary to say the least. Basically just looking in my mouth. Fortunately I have very good teeth.However my husband that’s dreadful teeth which have cost a fortune over the years. If he has to go private it will bankrupt us. Those on a low income are just stuffed. Doctors will soon go the same way. We will be back to the days when people pull their own teeth and died from preventable disease. It’s too depressing for words.

@womaninatightspot its the joy of the Barnett formula! Spending per person in scotland is 30% higher than england. But its nice that NHS dental still exists in the UK, albeit in Scotland!

Whoever said this is why the Americans think we have bad teeth is insane. Have you seen average or poor people’s teeth in America?! We only see the giant, bleached veneers the celebs have on tv.

Labour cut dentistry decades ago. No party has put it right since. I can’t blame dentists for not taking on new patients as they can barely break even, even more so since the restrictions from Corona.

£75 for teeth cleaning isn’t bad though for an hour’s work. Compared to wages for other services I think it’s pretty low. Just shows how we’re all so shielded from the real costs of medicine.

All of our dentists in out town have transferred bags patients onto a pay monthly plan, £10 for adults and £7 for children.
The government have cut the funding. I’m with a dentist out of town and am nhs so just waiting to have to pay monthly for 2 check ups a year!! 🤦‍♀️

But no one within a 20 mile radius is taking on nhs patients, haven’t since way before the pandemic.

Well unfortunately this isn't really a new problem. I signed up for den plan its about £24 a month for me but thank god because I've need a root canal and crown recently and everything was covered under my plan except the lab fee which was £120. Still compared to paying the entire cost of a crown and root canal I saved hundreds

The way forward is something like a denplan.

Dentists wife here. DH stopped doing children’s nhs a while ago when we worked out it cost us money. Sadly I think the public may have to get used to paying privately for dentistry. You would pay the same for a plasterer or electrician per hour and they do not study for the same number of years. Sadly dentistry has always been the Cinderella nhs service and it’s not getting any better. No doubt they are some that have done well from it (as have some gps) but an awful lot have not.

My children’s old dentist offered a dental plan to turn private.
£8 a month (per child) for 2 check ups, a hygienist appt, an X-ray and 10% off further treatments.
Seems pretty reasonable…..except for having to magically find the money to pay for any extra treatments on an already low budget

In the time of going back to school (and buying uniform eek!) I suspect most end up spending more on their children’s new school uniform than their teeth. Both are necessary but the government is not funding dentistry enough given the regulations and requirements which make it expensive to run a dental practice. So I suspect that many more will need to pay sadly as there are just not enough nhs dentists. And all the dentists that we know (it is often a generational family affair!) are discouraging their children from doing it. It is stressful and not particularly well paid for the a levels you need and the years of training (like the very highly paid gps you only hear of the very well paid, an awful lot are not in that position). We are actively discouraging our own DC from entering into the profession.

I managed to find an NHS dentist but the checkup he gave was rudimentary to say the least. Basically just looking in my mouth

This is so true! My NHS dentist literally just counts my teeth and his assistant writes it down

I see a private hygienist regularly and tbh she is the real person looking after my teeth. I just go to the NHS guy once a year to stay on his books but it is a waste of money. I might just sack it off after reading people's comments on here, because it seems if I ever do need something doing it will be very basic and my teeth are important to me, so no thanks.