How do ordinary working people afford major dental treatment costs?

[Heereforagoodtime]

My husband has just called, having been to the dentist, and he needs a back tooth to either be worked on and crowned or removed. The cost of the work is going to be over £1k. I don't know about the cost of the removal but, if he had it taken out, it would mean he'd be without two consecutive teeth on one side. I've just had a look at implants and they are so expensive.

I have a feeling this won't be the last of his issues, either. His teeth are terrible.

How do ordinary working people, who don't get any assistance, afford dental care?!

Lots of dentists will do a plan and let you pay monthly

It’s your front tooth so I understand the urgency.
have you asked your dentist about flexi dentures? They are really comfortable to wear and much cheaper than implants

All medical procedures cost a lot of money, the problem is a lot of the population need dental work, and lots of it throughout their life.

No, I’ve never heard of these. I have an appointment in a couple of weeks so I’ll ask then. Thanks!

Live in the SE
No nhs locally
I have to pay private
I'm a nervous patient, but not with the actual dentist. It was a hygienist that managed to destroy my confidence. I love the hygienist at my current practice so I don't want to shop around, but £90 for a checkup (and it's genuinely 5 minutes) really hurts.

That’s very expensive. Next time you are there check what’s being examined. You should have a full extra oral exam ( checking jaw joint and neck for lumps and bumps) you need a thorough check of teeth, Minimum BPE exam ( check of gums) and an oral cancer screening. Radiographs generally taken every two years unless there’s an issue or reason to do more regularly. They should check your occlusion, look for tooth wear, mobility and recession. Check your medical history, dental history and social history.

if all those points are covered, at least it’s thorough. You also by law require a written statement of treatment required /estimate .

I sometimes think I work to pay for my teeth but I do place importance on them. Teeth are something you don’t think about until there’s a problem

I pay for a health plan with HSF. It covers loads of things including dental and optical payments. It covers me, my DH and children younger than 18.

We’re lucky enough to have a NHS dentist but DH needs expensive treatment because he’s a tooth grinder at night. The dentist had to write a special letter to some high heid yin to get permission to do over £3,000 of dental work on him. It took over 2 years. He’s missing almost all his teeth on one side and I’m trying to encourage him to go to Turkey to get implants. Not for a cosmetic reason but to make sure he has teeth to chew with in the future and because having the gap causes pain in and of itself.

The country was destroyed after the Second World War. Something like 80% of the population over the age of 18 needed dentures. Prior to the introduction of the NHS the only folk who were entitled to free treatment were service men or those who paid National Insurance. Children, those who were pregnant it had just had babies, and the elderly and vulnerable didn’t qualify. Literally the ones needing the care. Once the NHS went live, they were literally queuing around the block to get registered.
the government really underestimated the care needs of the population. Dentists income doubled overnight.
eventually they cottoned on and there was a huge clawback. I can imagine what the outrage would be today with social media etc…

Lots have teeth pulled that they really should have saved. Some are professionals, yet can't afford it. It seems wrong that they can't have treatment that those who don't work get free (and I'm not benefit shaming-any one of us could be in that situation-I'm saying it's wrong anyone misses out).

I'm not sure, to be honest. I need to quiz him on it.

NHS dentistry seems to be very hit or miss depending on your area, my DD was told that she needed extractions and a two year wait on the NHS for braces, a different NHS dentist who was also an orthodontist ten miles away in the next county sorted her braces immediately with no extractions and told me he'd only had to do that twice in 20 years, she was super lucky and now has lovely teeth but why the difference?

I pay £27pm for 2 check ups, 2 hygiene appointments and everything is included treatment wise except lab fees. So fillings, extractions, root canal all included
it’s a legacy plan that was denplan care

The average dental student graduates with £100,000 debt.
Most NHS dental treatment loses a practice money , private work subsidises it https://www.bda.org/media-centre/nhs-dentistry-treasury-now-no1-roadblock-to-saving-service/

forcing dentists to work in a system that they have to pay to treat patients is forcing them to go bankrupt.

Dentists are dropping NHS treatment because the £36 paid per patient treated per year , including patient payments , is not enough to pay bills. How much would a plumber or garage do for £36? That money has to cover all practice expenses .

@Lollygaggle the average nhs appt is 5-10 minutes though, 6 an hour is £216 which is way more than a plumber or garage would charge.

I looked into dental insurance in much detail, I mean days and days... not sure how some people on here say they pay £30 a month and it covers lots of work...unless your teeth are almost perfect, i soon realised that insurance covers very little and if they give you a cash contribution for a crown etc, then the practice already charges a lot higher than others so that contribution is wiped out !! For myself, Denplan want almost £100 a month.

That’s not possible. Very occasionally a small child’s check up might take 5 minutes. Average filling appt- 30 mins. Average exam 10-15 mins, average scale and polish- 20 mins.

what about clean up time? If I had an appointment every 5/10 minutes I’d be burnt out, I’d have had to cut corners in my treatment, advice and cross infection.
I really don’t get where people make these assumptions. My notes/records alone take 5-10 minutes to write up. I witness every single one of my colleagues missing lunch and staying on late just to catch up with notes, prescriptions, and referrals.

and that hourly cost you mention? Whilst it’s nowhere near accurate ( it’s much lower), remember that the dentist needs to give 50% away to the practice to cover the nurse’s wage and other expenses. Then they need to set money aside for tax. Then they need to allow for other expenses such as those I documented earlier, such as professional fees, accountancy, indemnity.

The bottom line figure is WAY lower.

Implants are not available on the NHS except in extreme circumstances, have had discussions about this with a dental consultant last year at the hospital, I have an NHS dentist and an enormous bridge. I had been in an accident when I was 17 and lost my 2 front teeth. It was done on the NHS but I had to see some sort of regional specialist who approved it on the NHS. This was 40 years ago. It lasted till I was 32 and was then replaced.

I am now 60 and the bridge is on its last legs as slightly loose one side. There is no way I’m suitable for another bridge and it wouldn’t be approved, it will be a denture or implants and I will need a bone graft. My friend had one implant with a bone graft and it was 5k. Another had a denture done that clips on to just two implants and is a similar number of upper gaps and it was 14k. I will probably go with the denture clip in

Teeth have alwasy been a big indicator of income levels.

No it isn’t , First the room and equipment needs setting up . Afterwards everything needs decontamination , notes need writing up etc. Even a check up , after you’ve taken medical history, x rays , done the examination, explained treatment and got consent takes a minimum of 15 to 20 minutes and often more.

Eg A denture requires four appointments each of at least 20 minutes and a laboratory fee to be paid which is often more than the proceedure pays in total. A crown needs two appointments of at least 45 and 20 minutes, fillings require at least 20 minutes and often more .

on top of this if a patients fails to turn up (40% of new NHS patients fail their appointment) the surgery gets paid nothing. All expenses and wages are paid out of earnings.

A cheap practice in a cheap area will cost , per room , at least £140 an hour to run . When a check up earns £28 how does that work, when dentist, nurse, decontamination nurse, receptionist , cleaner , laboratories, materials, equipment, buildings, maintainance , training, sick pay, holiday pay, insurances etc have to be paid out of that?

The other consideration is these costs have also risen due to advances in treatment and attitude. Many of you on here trying to save individual teeth or with gaps - 40 or 50 years ago you would have just been advised to have the whole lot out and get dentures My grandparents, like many of their generation, had full dentures from their late 40s.

I am 48 and have one filling and an implant (the implant was actually the result of a dentist's mistake in my late teens - I was given a root canal that should not have been needed which then failed in my 30s)

I think it’s very cruel and ignorant when people assume those with bad teeth don’t have good hygiene or don’t care about their teeth. I always had prefect teeth right up until my late 30s to the point people would compliment me on them and then I developed chronic autoimmune issues including Sjogrens and lupus which have completely wrecked my teeth, particularly the back ones. Nothing has changed with my dental hygiene- still brushing and flossing etc but the Sjogrens means I don’t produce enough saliva to help protect my teeth and this also means any dental work doesn’t heal well - so I can’t tolerate bridges / implants etc etc. I am under the oral specialists at the hospital. In fact I am having (another) wisdom tooth removed today - the joys. I have had 6 teeth removed in the last few years, thankfully all back ones so they’re not noticeable but if it was a front one I’m sure people would judge me for it. 🙄

Ordinary working people? So never mind retired people or students or those who can't work for whatever reason. They don't matter apparently.

They don’t. I use a German toothpaste that allegedly helps with gun disease and bleeding, and hope. There is absolute way I can pay for any dental work, and never will be. I just hope to keep a hold of them long enough that I don’t then care about the poorly fitted dentures I will then have to be given

To be fair, though, we all pay more and more in tax. I don't know why dentistry is so rarely available on the NHS, but it's a bit of a joke.

NHS dental treatment is rarely available as the average spent per year, per person treated , including patient payments, is £36.

That pays for all costs running,staffing,,buying and equipping a dental practice.

when it costs a minimum of £140 an hour just to run one room in a cheap area, many NHS treatments lose the practice money.

How much would a plumber or garage do for £36?