cant find NHS dentist

[Ceci03]

So have recently moved to a new area and cant find a dentist who is taking on new NHS patients. I'm scared to use private as I have some bad teeth that need 'big jobs' on them, like root canal etc. Anyone any advice? I''m having a private consult next week, but if it needs big work I wont be able to afford it. Do they ever take you as private and then if you wait, you can change to NHS?

Quite honestly I don’t think there are NHS dentists anymore, unless you are already on the books.

We tried for ages to find just one NHS dentist but ended up having to go private. It’s not ideal as I don’t believe in private healthcare (have nothing against those that do) so it’s going against everything I stand for but there was no other way we even looked at dentists 3 towns over so at least an hour and half trip one way and no where had any spaces.

Our dentist lets you do a payment plan if it’s very expensive work but still it is really expensive.

Found one!!! But problem now is only private patients can have early morning or evening or Saturday appointments so I will have to take annual leave for each appointment. I guess I should be grateful though. Is there any difference in quality of treatment - sorry am clueless.

Pretty sure out of hours appointments are reserved for private patients because private patients pay for the privilege I've never known an NHS dentist to take non-emergency appointments out of usual hours. Taking leave to attend is standard practice for most people.

Treatments will be basic. If you went private and wanted the lowest cost option it would be the same basic treatment as NHS. You would have to pay for the next treatment up. For example my recent NHS extraction is now a gap. A private dentist would do the same extraction, but would fill the gap with an alternative for the right price.

Taking leave to attend dentist appointments is perfectly normal!!

You wouldn't expect an NHS GP appointment or Hospital appointment to fit around your work schedule surely? you just take waht you are given...so why expect special treatment from an NHS dentist.