Covid profiteering dentist.

[RipOffForNothing]

NC for this.

I'm pissed off at my dentist, I called today to make an appointment because my filling dropped out 3 weeks ago and now I'm in bloody pain, both top and bottom gums hurt.

I called up and got told, I've got to pay 7 pound for fuckin PPE. Nevermind the fact they are not the cheapest dentist anyway.

AIBU to think they are just profiteering?

I mean really a fuckin apron does not cost 7 pound. It's total bullshit. I did disagree down the phone but the short and sweet is, it's tough shit.

The dentist always wears an apron and mask anyway.

They are a private dentist as well as NHS. I'm private. I'm not saying that to sound stuck up, but to point out I do not pay NHS prices as is. I just think it's shady as fuck to be marking a apron up so much. I will be leaving them after this.

I had to pay £6 for ppe for the garage to work on my car.

You do know they had no income for nearly 3 months?

Dentists have to wear a lot of PPE, also it’s the extra time to don / doff and clean will mean they can’t fit in so many clients so sounds pretty reasonable to me.

mine is charging £35

It’s not just a mask, it’s the other PPE plus additional cleaning and time between patients. They’ll be seeing less people per day and need to cover their costs somehow.

Dentists have to leave a room to settle for an hour or so between procedures.

You're paying for a lot more than an apron for both the dentist and assistant.

I don’t think it is just the apron that is covered in the PPE charge. It also includes extra cleaning with gaps between appointments, more than one face mask (dental work is v high risk for transmission so they need disposable masks and fitted filter ones), etc. £7 doesn’t seem too bad to me, but if the existing charges are high you might feel it could be absorbed.

Mine charged me £25 for each back to back appointment in the same practise. I was pretty annoyed as one appointment was for a mouth guard fitting and full PPE was not worn or necessary.
When I queried it I was told they needed to recoup the costs for air purifiers and an industrial washing machine.

I have an hour dentist appointment next week and it’ll take them 1 and a half hours after my appointment to clean up everything, as well as the extra ppe for themselves and the dental nurse! It’s not just an extra mask!

£7 for PPE seems very reasonable as fixing your filling will be an aerosol generating procedure and your dentist and nurse will need to wear a gown and top of the range mask .

I wasn't charged anything for PPE when my 2 children and myself had check ups last week. We're NHS and my payment was the same as normal.

We had our own masks but used the dentist's hand gel and were given plastic aprons. The dentist had a fairly normal mask and a pretty robust looking visor.

You really have no idea.
It’s much more than an apron. I know a dental nurse and they are having to leave 1.5 hrs between patients.
Plus they’ve not earned anything for 3 months.

It’s not profiteering, don’t be ridiculous. It’s an increased cost for them at a time when they’re seeing fewer patients anyway. They won’t survive if they have to subsidise your treatment.

Leave if you want but I doubt you’ll find a dentist anyway absorbing this cost.

I'm a dentist. Mixed NHS and private. It's been a shambles. We shut down on 20th March. As a mixed practice we couldn't furlough our staff. We still had to work ie answer phones/triaging/referring. So distressing not being able to see patients face to face. Some of us were redeployed to other sections of the NHS including Covid wards.,
We had a small NHS payment equivalent in real terms to about a quarter of our income. We didn't qualify for any of the government grants. We still had all of our overheads- rent, rates, energy bills, software, insurance ( of which W couldn't claim), suppliers, leasing agreements, service contracts, HR contracts, indemnity, professional registration.
Our staff had to be paid. I had to stop paying my business loan, my tax bills and the inland revenue.
It's been awful. Our practice has been allowed to open up for urgent care only. Very gradually. In normal times we see about 140 patients in our practice. Due to social distancing we are allowed approximately 30 now.
If we do a procedure that causes an aerosol generating procedure, such as use an air and water spray, a scaler or a drill ( pretty much everything we do) it is a designated high risk for transmitting the virus.
We are in fact, the most dangerous profession in regards to potential spread.
We need to wear enhanced PPE for aerosol procedures. This has involved mask fitting ( costing over £1000 for our practice), respirator type masks or PPF3 type. The disposable kind are approximately £5-10 per use. Plus double gloving, disposable full gowns (£5 each), plus disposable head covers, feet covers ( in some practices). This is for nurse as well as dentist. If using reusable respirator masks, they retail at about £30 each, but will ultimately be more cost effective.
Once the procedure has finished, we must leave the room and not return for 60 minutes to allow for fallow time. Then the staff must don a further set of PPE- apron gloves and visor to deep clean the surgery. The alcohol wipes we use for this are now costing £40 per pack, instead of £5 pre- Covid times.
In the approximately 90 minute time allowed for fallow and cleaning, we used to see perhaps 4 or 5 patients, depending on treatment done, so now we are working at a really significant reduced capacity. We are needing at least three staff members to help with AGPs.
It's been the most stressful and worrying time of my career.
So, in conclusion £7 surcharge is very reasonable.
And it causes me GREAT upset to see this sort of criticism on a public forum.

They should give you money for coming in to help you out OP!!!111!!!

Get a grip along with your PPE.

@irreversibleverse

I'm a dentist. Mixed NHS and private. It's been a shambles. We shut down on 20th March. As a mixed practice we couldn't furlough our staff. We still had to work ie answer phones/triaging/referring. So distressing not being able to see patients face to face. Some of us were redeployed to other sections of the NHS including Covid wards., We had a small NHS payment equivalent in real terms to about a quarter of our income. We didn't qualify for any of the government grants. We still had all of our overheads- rent, rates, energy bills, software, insurance ( of which W couldn't claim), suppliers, leasing agreements, service contracts, HR contracts, indemnity, professional registration. Our staff had to be paid. I had to stop paying my business loan, my tax bills and the inland revenue. It's been awful. Our practice has been allowed to open up for urgent care only. Very gradually. In normal times we see about 140 patients in our practice. Due to social distancing we are allowed approximately 30 now. If we do a procedure that causes an aerosol generating procedure, such as use an air and water spray, a scaler or a drill ( pretty much everything we do) it is a designated high risk for transmitting the virus. We are in fact, the most dangerous profession in regards to potential spread. We need to wear enhanced PPE for aerosol procedures. This has involved mask fitting ( costing over £1000 for our practice), respirator type masks or PPF3 type. The disposable kind are approximately £5-10 per use. Plus double gloving, disposable full gowns (£5 each), plus disposable head covers, feet covers ( in some practices). This is for nurse as well as dentist. If using reusable respirator masks, they retail at about £30 each, but will ultimately be more cost effective. Once the procedure has finished, we must leave the room and not return for 60 minutes to allow for fallow time. Then the staff must don a further set of PPE- apron gloves and visor to deep clean the surgery. The alcohol wipes we use for this are now costing £40 per pack, instead of £5 pre- Covid times. In the approximately 90 minute time allowed for fallow and cleaning, we used to see perhaps 4 or 5 patients, depending on treatment done, so now we are working at a really significant reduced capacity. We are needing at least three staff members to help with AGPs. It's been the most stressful and worrying time of my career. So, in conclusion £7 surcharge is very reasonable. And it causes me GREAT upset to see this sort of criticism on a public forum.

I'm really glad I've read this. I genuinely had no idea how difficult it's been for dentists. We've just had our cancellation letter through from ours (which I was expecting). Thankfully we're okay in this house for dental issues but I'm assuming the catch up period will be huge.

I've just started a post on dental pain. Frankly I would have willing paid this thrice over to see a dentist who could have sorted my tooth out.

Lived through lockdown in agony needing to see a dentist, I would have happily paid £35 for PPE to be seen. My private dentist has put her prices up slightly (just a few pounds) but their COVID procedures are impeccable. Staff in full PPE, rooms left free between appointments (they switch between them every hour), every area is cleaned thoroughly, temperature taken on arrival, lots of sanitiser provided, waiting area improved so there’s more space for patients.

I would be happy to pay £7 to my dentist personally because I can see where the money is going and feel safe going there and the staff feel safe working there. Such a small price to put on safety and peace of mind.

I started a similar thread recently on hygienist charges. I really don't mind paying for the PPE, but my hygienist is now not using the AirFlow for cleaning but doing manual cleaning and the appt is 40 minutes instead of 30 and the charge is almost double, taking an appt to over £100!

Ordinarily I would be fine with manual scaling but I have a problem with my trigeminal nerve and manual scaling would really start off some problems for me!

Given what people have said on this thread and my own thread, I've accepted and understand the cost now but it's the manual cleaning that I'm unhappy with!

Wow. £100 for a hand scale is taking the piss. In our practice a twenty minute hygienist appt is £40, and we haven't as yet put the prices up or made an extra charge for PPE. We might raise the prices very slightly to reflect some of our extra costs, but just now we are grateful to be able to do some treatments, ( as I don't think we should have ever properly closed in the first place) and secondly I am grateful that patients have been loyal to us, mostly sympathetic and supportive.

@irreversibleverse well said.

My hygienist had gone from 50 to £65 - that was fine by me

I wonder if the outrage (and honestly I was pretty annoyed at the costs for a mouth guard fitting PPE which was already costing £900) is because people are struggling financially themselves and are worried about money?

I mean I know the logical reasons etc but there seems to be a lack of acknowledgement by some dentists that other self employed people have slipped through the net with government support too. Other businesses are failing and lots of people are frightened for the future.

It’s not a race to the bottom I know but I think that’s what’s winding me up about some of the responses on here.

But I think that £7 is reasonable, mine is £25 each appointment and I was charged £50 for two back to back ones in the same room, both non aerosol generating.

And it causes me GREAT upset to see this sort of criticism on a public forum.

But I wouldn't have known about the realities for the dentist industry if I hadn't read the replies, so yes it was a criticism but by someone who was ignorant to the facts, as was I.