to think private dentists just think of a number

[glasgowsteven]

I have porcelian veneers - have had for 25 years since early teens - when I smashed my front teeth.

never any bother - ever, one fell off, and I found it in bed.

A reverse tooth fairy.

so went to my local (sounds like) loopa - dentist - as I am not registered with an nhs one.

Check up first - 25 quid..no problem.

after the check up sales pitch.

Do you have toothache - nope.....

strange because you need --

root treatment, fillings, caps and also both veneers replaced.

Total cost - 2250...........

How much to recement my current veneer

£65 quid...

That will do nicely thank you verymuch..

By 2k ++

for some fillings and root canal

(800 quid of that was two new veneers - nothing wrong with ones i got)

so.....thoughts....

Dentistry should not be a business - it is healthcare.

Bollocks, sorry. Should they work for free then? The problem with the NHS is that because of it people want everything for free, fair enough, but the NHS does not have the funds to pay appropriately for the time, the expertise and the fact that dentists have to be accessible.

They have to be in a practice paying rent, rates, utilities, staff, equipment, sundries, disposal of dangerous waste etc etc before they even begin to pay themselves. The NHS cannot afford to pay enough out to cover all of that, the money simply does not exist. So either dentists work for free, or they run their practice as a business.

I am not a dentist, but I do work in healthcare and believe me the way NHS funding is going there will be far more health fields in the future who can only be accessed privately. Why take on ever increasing responsibility for ever decreasing fees? Dentists, doctors, opticians, pharmacists, physios, podiatrists; they are all businesses because they have to be.

My private dentist said I need some I fills and quoted a price. I said "how about 3 for 2 then?" He said ok. I actually got 4 for 2. So try haggling. You'd do it in other areas of life.

Infills.

Littlegreyauditor- they should still be honest and ethical though..
As I said earlier, I have a great dentist now. But I should not have to worry whether my dentist is honest with his/her diagnosis though.
Like a doctor surely a dentist should first 'do no harm'.
The problem is, once they drill a hole in your tooth evidence is gone of original condition of tooth...[One reason I bought my xrays from previous dentist from last 10 years= 5 xrays].

Quote Professordent: 'Just out of interest, how much do we think is reasonable for an appointment with a private dentist, where an X-ray is taken but not much actual work done? Is £50 reasonable?'

If they book 30 mins time slot then probably £100 would be more realistic. I would expect a lot of small talk and a thorough check...I don't mean those 2 minute NHS 'hello goodbye' check-ups I used to get back in the day. I see it as a health screen for oral cancer, not just my dental health.

Spice have a look for a local NHS dentist on NHS Choices - the NHS has a duty to find you an NHS dentist. That duty used to rest with PCTs, I imagine it's now with local clinical commissioning groups.

It is not very ethical of dentists to say 'we'll only offer to NHS treatment to children if parents go private', nor to fail to explain how you can find an NHS practice - it's not hard to say 'go and look at this URL', is it?

No wonder people are suspicious...

I think the fact people complain about the cost of dentists shows just how much we are sheltered from the true cost of healthcare by the NHS.

Exactly chipped. Everyone wants first class treatment on a Ryanair budget and thinks that is reasonable.

my dentist is great! check up £35. My teeth are good so he's ok with annual checks.
Rebuild of a broken tooth- £100 which I think is great value considering about 70% was gone, and it now looks like a real tooth.

chipped has hit the nail right on the head there and little a Ryanair budget would feel generous some days great analogy.

I think I pay a lot less than some of you quote for our private dentist.

DS got 5 yrs free orthodontic treatment on the NHS. FIVE YEARS!! People in the US remortgage their houses to pay for orthodontry.

People in the US remortgage to afford diabetes medicine too.
We have no real idea of what we get cheaper than cost.

I once suggested that the NHS should issue itemised "bills" at the end of treatment with "paid for by the NHS" after the total amount. Most would ignore it but it might make some people think about what they are getting, and the humungous sacrifices they would have to make if it wasn't free at the point of use.

If something is "free" people assume it is worthless; a major problem in my line of work where the phrase "but I'm entitled to it free" can make me want to punch things.

I see a private dentist. I was on several waiting lists for an NHS dentist. I pay quite a bit for their 'gold standard' service. I'm not on Denplan, I pay £280 a year just to see the hygienist. I have spent thousands there over the years following their recommendations but then I phoned to say I was having severe pain.

I had to wait 9 days for an appointment for them to take care of that pain. Yes, I do think some of them see neon pound signs, patient care was sorely lacking in my case. I'm aware they have overheads and I have never expected them to charge me peanuts.

I did not expect them to leave me in pain. I am very disillusioned, I do not have a huge salary but thought it was worth it to have good oral health. I now know how much I am 'valued' as their patient.

I pay 35 per year for a half scale and polish which dentist does at check up. That's on top of the checkup fee. It's 70 if you see the hygienist but I strongly recommend the use of an electric toothbrush . It has drastically cut the tartar build up on my teeth .

Yy to free being the same as worthless. Exempt patients (who pay nothing) fail to attend far more appointments than those who pay NHS prices. Similarly, those who pay "just" NHS prices fail far more appointments than those who pay privately. Yet the private patients subsidise everyone else by not using the NHS.

my experience too mrsmorton as an NHS dentist too, those that pay the least or nothing seem to appreciate the treatment least too,

I work in a fairly deprived area about 70% of patients are exempt; the fail to attend rate is about 18% or roughly 1 in 5 patients ( this does not include cancellations even 5 minutes before which with so little notice is effectively the same) in fact at least once or twice a week someone rings up looking for an emergency appointment today they get given one the same day and still fail to turn up this is not a rare occurrence

for the attention of one poster above on the NHS you get as much anaesthetic as you need to make tooth numb, there is no limit ( apart from max dosage) most teeth only need one injection regardless of whether you are being seen private or NHS occasionally 2 maybe necessary; I would generally consider 4 to be the max i would give anyone at 1 visit

I think it's unfair to say only private dentists are phobic friendly. I have the most wonderful NHS dentist who is absolutely lovely and understands my fear. In fact I cried on him just last week!!

At the end of the day, dentists have been through years and years of training. Are they not entitled to be paid a decent wage to recognise that?

And my NHS dentist gives me lots of anaesthetic including the gel first and then injections.

a lot of it is just dentist bashing, I've heard it all before

if you are an NHS dentist you are useless and uncaring

if you are private you are caring but only so you can grab more money

its a bit disheartening when you try your best to help people of course I want to be paid, no-one works for nothing not teachers, nurses shop workers etc
I have worked as NHS dentist for the best part of twenty years

it costs a lot of money per hour to run a dental practice what the patient and/or NHS pays has to cover everything lease/ mortgage/rent and business rates heat/ lighting/water, staff wages, clinical waste collection materials, accountants etc etc all before I get any money all this costs go on whether patient turns up or not so when a patient does not turn up we are actiually losing money not just not earning anything, most people do not realise that dentists are self employed and although the business is healthcare it runs in terms of a business the same as any other costs and expenditure must be less than takings in order to pay staff and ourselves

I am not pleading poverty because that is untrue but neither is it a gravy train of easy money

that said most patients are really nice but some it just would not be possible to do the right thing whatever

I've only had good experience with dentists, if I've needed work done then I'm usually shown the x-ray and they talk through what is happening where inside my teeth.

I was at my dentist last week and had an x-ray as there are areas they are keeping an eye on, the dentist showed me what they are watching and advised me about how I could do things at home to repair minor decay between two awkwardly angled teeth.

Dental work is expensive, it's not unreasonable that when paying the true cost of it the figures would run into the high hundreds or even thousands but there should be proper discussion about what needs doing.

Mine isn't money grabbing. She does an excellent job too. £45 for my filling the other day.

Quote Cominthrughthewry: 'I did not expect them to leave me in pain.'

Cominthruthewry, you are right that is outrageous. You need a better private dentist than that. Were you fobbed off by a receptionist? I have an 'out of hours' emergency mobile number.

I take my hat off to anyone who can work exclusively for the NHS. THe last contract change coincided with my return to work after having DS1, I only managed 6 months.

CominThroughTheWry 9 days is totally unacceptable. How did you get sorted in the end? We always keep appointments each day for emergencies, and if they're filled and someone really needs to be seen they sit and wait.

How do you know there is nothing wrong with them? The fact that one fell off does state that there is an issue with bonding, which may be due to wear, so now saliva & liquids are getting under the veneer & weakening the material used to bond it to the tooth.

2, 250 is not bad for what you have listed, to be fair. Where I worked you wouldn't get 2 veneers for that price.

For veneers to last 25yrs is bloody good! The usual life time is 10yrs.

When you factor in overheads such as cost of materials, general bills, wages, lab costs etc.