General dentistry is really expensive. It's simply not comparable to say a GP practice. We operate. We do surgery on a daily basis.
Our Costs are crazy, and rising steadily. Every day another email stating that utility bills/rates/rents/materials etc are rising.
Our costs include rent, wages, software maintenance and managements, x Ray equipment insurance and maintenance, indemnity fees, accountants, utility bills, engineers, lab bills, materials ( a small 5G tube of the material you use for root canal treatment costs £100!) , PPE, insurance, professional fees, cleaning, Continuing professional development, sterilisation costs, magnifying loupes, website, HR and employment law support, staff training, stationery, business loans, IT support, HMRC, card machine rental...
It's pretty relentless. We've been hit so badly due to Covid. There was a period of about 4 months when we could work, and there was no income. We couldn't take full advantage of furlough because we were getting a paltry amount if compensation for our NHS commitment. When we did reopen we were so restricted. We had funding and capacity for about 10 patients per day ( my practice normally saw 150 pre pandemic.
We had to be fitted for expensive masks, then ventilation costs...
after each procedure that uses a drill, we needed to down tools and vacate the room for one hour to allow droplets to settle ( this eventually reduced to half an hour, then 10 minutes after the first year. )
So we have backlogs. And massive waiting lists, and debts due to Covid.
And bad press. And it's really stressful. The amount of folk that are moaning about having to wait, or that won't wear masks, not to mention the ones that simply don't turn up to previous appointments without so much as a phone call to warn us.
And the physical exertion it took to wear those masks and gowns constantly not to mention the specific deep clean required after every single appointment. Yes, that included washing walls and floors.
Here in Scotland dental
Nurses are leaving the profession as it's poorly paid and the job twice as tough. There were no dental graduates last year ( not enough experience to qualify), and soaring numbers of retirees, so there is a massive recruit crisis.
I've worked my arse off. I'm literally drowning in it, and getting paid by the NHS a third of what I earned three years ago. The private work goes some way towards helping redress the balance somewhat ( but private patients are more demanding! )
It's been A BLOODY NIGHTMARE all round.
I do recommend Denplan to be fair. They were the first patients I saw for check ups when we reopened, even though quite a few demanded money back as we were forced to close.
But please don't take it out on us. We are doing all we can. And it will get better.
The government needs to do so much more. We need to be paid better. We get £7.20 in Scotland for an extraction ( that's if you are an associate, like the majority of dentists are)
That extraction, if difficult might take longer than half an hour) We are self employed so need to pay the tax man out of that money. We also need to pay our insurances, indemnity and professional fees. If i was solely NHS I'd earn more working in a supermarket.