PPE charge at dentists?

[stayingaliveisawayoflife]

I was going to go for my check up which was booked before all the crazy happened. I have been told that there is a £20 surcharge for PPE. Looking at the info I will be given two squirts of anti bac and a pair of gloves I have to throw away before I leave. It is a private dentist.

I think it grates because I pay for extra PPE and anti bac products to keep my classroom clean and now I suspect I am being charged to pay for PPE for the practice staff.

Has anyone heard of this happening elsewhere? Is it just common practice now and I need to suck it up?

They're probably full PPE (proper sealed ffp3 masks like in ITU) as doing procedures on your mouth is high risk for spreading Covid and the dentist and assistant will be very close.
Ffp3 masks are one use only and expensive.

And the dentist and dental nurse will be wearing a single use gown, FFP3 mask, significantly upped their cleaning, disposing of the extra medical waste is expensive...

If you are seeing a private dentist, those costs have to be paid for somewhere or they go bust.

OP didn't say they will be given a mask. I would go elsewhere

Why do you assume it is PPE for you?! Dental work is a high risk area, at the peak many ENT surgeons died. The dentist themselves will be wearing very high grade PPE, not you. Due to supply and demand prices have skyrocketed.

I went last week and paid £7. Same at chiropodist earlier this month

The cost of ppe for dental practices has gone up by 6000%. The practice simply can’t absorb this and remain viable. The dentist and their nurse for each patient will require an ffp3 mask which will have been fit tested, a fluid resistant gown, gloves, visor. An hour must also be left between each patient for aerosols to settle before cleaning can even commence. £20 doesn’t even come close to covering the extra costs.

I had a check up at the dentist 2 weeks ago. I had an abcess during the early part of lockdown so my Dentist arranged the appointment weeks ago thinking she would be reopened by mid June. I was asked to attend wearing a mask. When I arrived I had to fill in and sign a Covid-19 related questionairre, had my temperature taken and squirt anti bac on hands. The Dentist was wearing disposable single use gloves, the usual goggles and a paper/surgeons/general theatre mask. After removing my mask, I had a check up, X rays, and a scale (no polish) I was asked to put my mask back on after treatment and told "it's for your benefit not ours" (not my understanding). I was surprised by the low level of protection the Dentist was wearing.

My dentist is £7 if no dry procedures ie drilling or dry scaling or £37 with

It’ll be to cover additional PPE for the dentist and dental nurse - dental practitioners and their staff are exposed to the highest load of Covid from saliva and the AGP’s they do .

Is there a charge by nhs dentists too?

Thanks that is the info I was wanting. At my surgery they have always worn masks, visors and paper gowns so I was just unsure. I hadn't thought about the room thing so that makes sense. I was just wondering and yes I probably did assume they were charging a bit much.

The PPE worn depends on the procedure. Aerosol generating procedures like drilling, ultrasonic scaling etc need a high level of PPE- gown, Fit tested FFP3 mask- x2 for dentist and nurse. Of course if it is private the patient pays for this- who else? There isn’t a magic money tree. Patients pay us to do their teeth.
Non AGP like check ups and x Rays the PPE is an IIR mask- looks like a normal surgical mask, visor, plastic apron over scrubs, gloves.
At my practice we have just increased fees for all AGPs but a separate PPE fee is another way to go.

I would prefer to know that there is a separate charge for ppe than increase all treatment costs because when things return to normal i bet they wont reduce their prices again because by then people got used to it so a separate charge is reasonable.

OP didn't say they will be given a mask. I would go elsewhere

Errr....

Am I missing something? A dentist can't work if the patient has a mask on

I've had an email from my hairdresser inviting me to book from 4 July (long overdue, as I last went before Christmas).

They are adding a surcharge for PPE. Only £6.50 though. Seems reasonable in the circumstances.

My hairdresser says bring your own mask or pay £1.50 and they will provide one. No other charge. I get that dentists may need better masks.

Yes we’ve had a letter come through the post a few days ago from our dentist stating an extra £20 charge for PPE, it’s also a private practise - may be this is going to be standard ...

Dentists are wearing much more than a simple surhical masks though.
And yes it will take a long time to clean between 2 persons.

I have lost about 1/2 of my capacity because of the cleaning regime (I am not a dentist btw) and my cost for just seeing someone has increased by at least 5 to 10% because of not just the PPE but also the cleaning products/disinfectant etc....
I am expecting the cost of a lot of other things to go up because of that.

Btw you can't compare hairdressers and dentists. I suspect that they are not asked to have the same levels if PPE/cleaniless and therefore not the same issue with the lost time due to desinfecting everything between people.
The other side is that I suspect some hairdressers will not have passed on the full cost of the new 'regime' on the ground that people would be happy to accept it. I know I am debating about that. But I somehow doubt that people will be happy to pay that much more to reflect the REAL cost of implementing all those measures.

The danger is that some professions are going to struggle because they can't make enough money to live on. Maybe not dentists but yes your hairdressers, massage threapists, physios etc etc

DH is having private dental work which has been postponed but has been told that when they reopen the PPE charge will be £25 at every visit regardless of work completed. He was told this included things like disposable shoe coverings for him.
Unfortunately OP I think for now this is the new normal, although I’ll admit I’m putting off my routine hygienist visit at our private dentist for many reasons, this extra charge being one.

Yes my dentist has sent out an email to all patients that there will be a surcharge for the use of PPE and a charge if you have any aerosol generating procedure. Fair enough. From the email:

f you are having treatment that doesn't include the use of certain dentistry equipment, such as a high speed drill or airscaler, the supplement for the appropriate PPE will be £7.

However, if the dentist does need to use these tools, they can generate what we call an aerosol, or spray, that includes droplets of your saliva. Due to the risk of Covid-19 transmission in saliva, our teams must wear further enhanced PPE, so the supplement charge for those treatments is currently set at £35.

I went yesterday and paid nothing extra. I had my temp taken on way in, had a squirt of antibac, I wore my own mask until I sat in the chair.

But I would not be paying extra as I pay a lot per month on Denplan (troublesome teeth) and have lost 3 months of appointments, my Denplan payments didn't stop whilst I couldn't go. They can take the PPE out of that!

I wonder if there would be one charge or two for seeing two patients from the same household consequentially? Surely no need to change the ppe or clean the room between patients living together.
I might have this issue shortly.

*consequetively

J thought they already used disposable PPe