Dental Appointments

[poiuytrewq1]

To be shocked that a routine hygienist appt has more than doubled in price ? pre covid £42. Post covid £87 or £112 depending on how long the dreaded scrape and polish takes.

I can't imagine many people can afford such a hike. I do appreciate PPE will push price up but surely this is extortionate ?

Ouch!

I have an appt booked for next month (they're very pushy at our dentist for getting you booked in). Might cancel/delay it.

The hygiene requirements (allowing time for air/droplets to settle, cleaning all the surfaces) means each appointment will take at least twice as long. How else do they cover costs?

I was going to say it's probably because they have to block out time either side for cleaning but that is a big hike. I'm NHS at a Bupa dentist and there are no prices online.

@lanthanum

The hygiene requirements (allowing time for air/droplets to settle, cleaning all the surfaces) means each appointment will take at least twice as long. How else do they cover costs?

Maybe by using part of the very generous Government grants and subsidies they will have received to keep the business afloat. I am more than happy to pay extra, but not double and the practice is part of a huge corporate set up who seem to be the only one charging at such a level.

That's a huge increase

That's unaffordable for most people now

That is very expensive, a lot of people will not have an hygienist appointment at that price. I’m on a plan which goes up each January so I am not expecting a change until then but I will look at the prices in the dentist when I go in a couple of weeks to see if they have increased

My DM is a hygienist and has to do hand scaling now. She's early 60s and says it's really hard work and takes much longer. She has arthritis in her fingers and she is really struggling with it. That is largely why costs have gone up where she is, physically can't be done as quickly.

I've been paying £80 a time (every 3 months) for the past 10 years. It's probably due an increase. And considering the surgery will need to be cleaned thoroughly every time and additional PPE and hand scaling I expect another £30 on top.

Expensive but I only get one set of teeth so I'm going to pay it whatever.

I do t think you are being very fair re assuming the very generous government grants cover dental practices.
It's been an absolute total nightmare. I'm a dentist- mixed private/nhs. I haven't earned a penny since March and I've had to put both my mortgage and business loan on hold. The NHS gave us a small amount which will help towards paying our dentists ( about 60% of their normal wage).
We can't furlough staff as it's assumed the NHS payments will auxiliary staff costs. It doesn't. Far from it. And besides we've been expected to be available to work- telephone triage and some were redeployed to other sections of the NHS ( including in some cases Covid wards).
We can't qualify for the small business grants as didn't meet the requirements, the grants were for leisure and retail.
Our normal PPE costs prior to lockdown were approximately 33p per person. Now the average cost is £38 per person. This is for each individual and we need to supply dental nurse as well.
We haven't even started to consider hygienist costs yet as can't see how it will work. If they use an ultrasonic scaler they will need enhanced PPE ( at an even greater expense), and a fallow time, (to let the aerosol spray settle) between each patient of approximately one hour.
It's an absolute mess. The best we can hope for is the Covid risk to fall to maybe a 1 or a 2 and the enhanced PPE not necessary any more.
Don't know when that will be.
I'm stressed out of my box. I've got almost 800 people that have phones me during lockdown demanding to be seen and I'm not allowed to help them properly, or it's too much financially inhibiting.
Let's pray for a miracle

Sorry for the long post. I'm close to tears. When I saw your response I thought is that what everyone is thinking of us just now?
the reality is that over 50% of dental practices are likely to go bust

@tippexed. I feel for you. My friend manages a NHS/private practice and has basically said what you have just said to the letter. Such an awful situation and she said there has been such limited information from the BDA. you deserve them