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?

My nhs dentist is seeing me next week. Cost is £62. I think that price is very reasonable indeed.

Dentists already use disposable PPE, but there are now extra requirements over and above that, the cost of PPE had in some cases quadrupled masks were about £5 for 100 now over £20 same with gloves, also the new type of masks are several times more money, you have to space patients out more long term the income drop will probably mean even less NHS dentistry as it had to be economically viable and doing 3check ups an hour just isn't

£20 for 100 masks?? Nope they are much more expensive than that! And that's the simple fluid resistant surgical masks, not the more expensive ones that dentists will use.

The masks I have to use are £35 for 50 masks. They are simple surgical masks....

But yes they USED to be much much cheaper :(.

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.

That would simply not be allowed under the HSE guidelines.
PPE will be changed as they should be and room will be cleaned. Why shouldn't they?!?

They have predicted one in five private dentists will fold due to the costs they have already incurred and are due to incur with this.

Just rang dentist today for a hygienist appointment - to my amazement booked in for this pm ( handy as am on leave this week ) - price gone up by £15 which is absolutely fine .

Seems acceptable. However I think the knock on effect will be that even less people receive the dental care they require due to costs. I suspect nhs dental fees will also increase.

@bargebill mines an NHS dentist and the additional charge for the hygienist is @25%uplift but it is of course an AGP generator so she/ he will need a gown / FP3 mask

I understand why

But some of the figures Mentioned here are going to make taking my family to the dentist a very expensive trip

Looking at theatre/theme park prices...and the chair isn’t that exciting a ride!!

Your surgery will also have to factor in the costs of disposing of all of the the extra ppe. It can’t just be put in the household waste and clinical waste is expensive.

My NHS dentist is an extra £7 for routine appointments and £35 extra for risky procedures. I ok to pay it but I'm really worried about people who won't be able to afford to.

I am cross about this too. I have been paying my Denplan payments as normal during lockdown even though my check up and hygienist appointment was obviously cancelled twice. They have had about £100 of my money but I've not been able to have a service from them.
I understand that costs have increased but I am self employed and have had less clients during lockdown. I'm not passing on the extra costs to the clients I have had.
I'm not even eligible for the second government self- employed grant, even though I have had reduced income in June as my income pretty much disappears normally over the school summer holiday.
It really doesn't seem fair I should be paying more than normal for a reduced service

@EducatingArti

If you have been paying Denplan and been unable to go to them, they cannot expect you to pay more, or surely you could be asking for your payments back? I did contact Denplan actually, but they said it was between me and my dentist, as they just administrate it.

I missed 4 appointments during lockdown. I pay a lot per month. They haven't asked me for anything extra, and I've had two appointments already (one last week, one this) so I've let the payments go, thinking it's like an insurance policy I suppose.

Just incidentally, my hairdresser (small salon) has put her prices up to cover costs of PPE. I'm sort of OK with this as it's only £2 an appointment. And I'm not sure what that covers till I get there in July.

Dentists are money grabbing arse's anyway. Ours wants £7 pp p ppe then an extra £35 if any drilling or scraping needs doing. Fuck em. Ill wait till the madness is over. Or use my own ppe. Thankfully our family have bloody good teeth.

Hi was just charged my xray no more but was wisdom tooth so was referred on. She decent. Can see why the increase though

I went yesterday to have my brace tightened and wasn’t asked for a surcharge. The dentist did say he’s only able to do ten appointments a day instead of twenty-five so it must be difficult times for them.

Trouble is... the PPE isn't for you to use, it's for the dentist/hygienist to use.

@Fangtasia2020
Aren’t you lovely? Glad I’m not working at the moment.
My practice fees aren’t set by me. For someone with a 5 year professional degree and 20 years experience our fees are really reasonable.
Do remember whenever you see a dentist you have to pay the nurse as well. Do you wish they were on minimum wage when they do the decontamination?
I don’t.

I saw my NHS dentist last week to have a crown re-cemented. No extra charge, standard band 1 fee.

The private practice I attend has been closed for months. So, not a penny earned by anyone.

They are opening soon but are prioritising those who were on a course of treatment when lock-down was announced. Which is fair enough.

When they do open (maybe they already have) they will only be opening two of the four consulting-rooms and will be limiting the appointment times to restrict the numbers in the waiting-room.

Considering all the additional cost they will be incurring and the loss of income for months, I think a few quid extra per appointment on top is fair enough. And no, I am not a high earner. In fact I am now a no-earner

I am a hygienist and I have had a 40% pay cut. No change to my hours. I am seeing less patients but I’m not working any less as I’m spending the rest of the time cleaning. The practice have however put the hygienist fees up by £10 as well. I am happy to accept this pay cut for now as we see where things are heading but long term it may not be worth while continuing. I think a lot of the dental profession may start leaving if things don’t improve.

You think that's bad? My private London dentist is charging £90 extra due to covid.

Dentists are one of the most badly affected professions out of all this. No pay (most self employed and would have been over the limit allowed) for 3 months, many still having to pay the overheads and rents on their surgeries, it was the profession most likely to catch covid (more than even frontline doctors), and a very uncertain future as they get paid per patient and can only see a quarter of their usual amount of patients and have to pay a fortune per patient for the ppe required. I know this will cue the tiny violins from the bitter folk on here, but they have been really unfortunate with this one.

Ours is charging £40 extra, even if you’re paying Denplan. That’s per patient, so for the four of us to go to the dentist (that we have not stopped paying for thought this time) it would cost £160 on top of our normal premiums.