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.

Should everyone whos done a degree in the UK work for the public sector for 10 years? What about we just make everyone do public sector work for 10 years? No one is allowed to emigrate till they are at least 30. Affer all the uk government has paid for 14 years of their education

Never mind for women thats your best opportunity to career build.

Personally if they told me I had to do NHS work only for 10 years no way would I have gone into the profession. It completely erridicates the ability to specialise, increase your skills. It completely erradicates the ability for me to actually provide decent dentistry as what the NHS pays for is limited at best. Want a nice aesthetic crown? Sorry cant do that because I can only do nHS. Want a decent fitting cobalt chrome denture? No. Tooth whitening? No. Decent molar root canal? No. NHS dentistry is incredibly limited.

Plus i dont see how you can unwittingly be treated by a dental student.

Dental students only treat patients in dental schools. If you go to a training school, you know there will be students (heavily supervised by very skilled consultants)

And I will say it again

The NHS does not have a problem finding dentists to do NHS work. The amount of NHS work the government allows is already maxed out.

Where are we going to magic up this nhs work for every dentist to do solely for 10 years? It will cost the government a hell of a lot more to pay for the extra nhs work that would need to be paid for

I paid £36 at my dentist for the additional cleaning and PPE. It's not just a normal mask. Worth it to reduce risk imho.

Private prices are what decent dentistry actually costs to provide. A lot of NHS dentistry is carried out at a loss, if youve ever had multiple fillings in one course of treatment, or an upper and lower denture. If youve ever had a molar root canal on the NHS all of that will be done at a loss

So if the NHS is going to salary dentists for the first 10 years plus pay my lab bills and materials costs, plus the running costs of my surgery, salary of my dental nurse go ahead. Sounds great actually. But it will costs the NHS a fuck ton of money.

Some dentists seem to be with the exorbitant PPE fees. Mine is reasonable-£5. I know of some practices that charge a lot more and some that charge none.

Should everyone whos done a degree in the UK work for the public sector for 10 years?

No, because there isn’t significant public investment in most degrees.

If NHS dentistry is limited and all dentists had to work there for a period of time, perhaps they might put some pressure on the government to offer more than very basic treatment. Most doctors who do private work do a mixture of NHS and private, why can’t dentists do the same?

Thank your lucky stars, I recently had a check up and scale (no polish) and it cost me £130!

£45 for the check up, £45 for the scale and the rest was PPE costs.

Just remembered I bought some TePees so the PPE cost was £30 not £40.

@vinyldetective

Almost every dentist does a mixture of private and nhs..

Do yoy think dentists havent been putting pressure on the NHS for years?

Ffs yabu. Embarrassingly so. Please don't say this out loud to anyone. They will think you're really thick.
It is absolutely blindingly obvious that many many professions, dentists being high up there, aren't making enough money at the moment to break even. Of course they're not. Time lost cleaning, time lost letting aerosols settle, high ppe costs.

In Spain companies are forbidden from passing on the costs of PPE to customers.

@OrangeBlossomsinthesun
That would actually be worse, because it means anyone running their own business would have to absorb the costs instead. That has consequences. Either they go bust, don't open because it isn't viable, or put up their general costs to cover ppe which then won't decrease.

I’m in Scotland where I know things are a bit different, and I am an NHS patient in a mixed surgery. I went in a few weeks ago to get impressions done for a replacement night guard, having chomped through mine in lockdown, then back a fortnight later to collect/check the fit.

I didn’t pay any extra charge, and my dentist was kind enough to do a “visual inspection” plus the poky gum thing because I missed my checkup in April.

My surgery normally has five treatment rooms, plus a hygienist room, and they are currently only allowed to use two to allow for cleaning. They must be making a huge loss, and I would have gladly paid for PPE costs if required.

Do yoy think dentists havent been putting pressure on the NHS for years?

I have absolutely no idea. I can’t see why they would, the more that’s available on the NHS, the less the requirement for that profitable private treatment. It would be a bit like turkeys and Christmas.

Actually I just Googled and it's not illegal but must be specified before you pay and you can refuse to pay it and report it if you think it's abusive.

Some of the things some of you are coming out with 🙄 this is what puts me off my career!

YABU.

My dentist is private too, only because they stopped being NHS a few years ago now, and as I am quite nervous, decided to stay with them. They are charging £25.00 for ppe. I did think that is quite high, until I attended the appointment, as they have brought a machine, that filters your breath away from the dentist. They have also brought a temperature gadget, that they can take your temp without touching you.

Both dentist and assistant had a lot more extensive protection ppe than usual.

Dentists haven't come out of this looking too good. Currently my daughter is able to see the orthodontist regularly and they seem to have tight procedures in place. She's not charged for any PPE. Yet we still can't get an appointment at our dentist. Why can the orthodontist open and our dentist cannot?

@VinylDetective if the NHS pays properly for the treatment then I really dont give a shit if its NHS or private. Id rather offer the appropriate treatment to patients. You clearly have a problem with dentists

FGS threads like this make me want to quit - months bending over backwards and having reduced pay and may as well have just sat back and done nothing for the assumptions many people make.

Dentists are at the mercy of Covid regulations and ever changing advice if they are NHS. We are operating at 30% capacity and am more stressed than ever and all we want is for things to be back to normal. My face hurts from the PPE masks we now wear and my neck hurts from craning around all the new plastic wrap to see the bloody teeth.

I also cannot believe some things I’ve read up thread about nurses not wearing proper masks - I don’t know a single dental nurse that would stand for that so I assure you even if it was disposable it would have met regulations - dentists pay ~8k a year for insurance so it wouldn’t be worth their while to cut corners on PPE.

How hard is it to understand that for a huge variety of reasons some practices are offering shorter waits or less PPE charges than others based on their own situations? Or do we all believe that they are all just lying to try and profiteer during a pandemic?

Why is it so hard to believe dentists just want to be treated like human beings and want the best for their patients? That includes having proper PPE as it is one of the highest risk jobs for spreading Covid - the PPE we are using makes us feel sick and exhausted and it HURTS but we need to be SAFE doing our jobs.

Nommy you were not in my consultation, I was. I can assure you that the poor dental nurse was not wearing a suitable mask.
I also stand by my point that NHS dentists were paid more than 80% of normal earnings during closure, with no need to purchase any consumables. I don’t think many people would think that is too harsh ( especially considering the sums of money involved) .
I don’t think either statements is incompatible with the majority of dentists wanting the best for their patients.

I think that £7 sounds like a bargain to keep you, the dental surgeon and the nurse all safe from a killer virus.

At the start of the pandemic, dental surgeries were encouraged to donate all their protective wear to local hospitals which were running short of it.
So now they are having to re stock at vastly inflated prices. Add to that, more intensive cleaning procedures between patients, leading to fewer patients per session.

Have a look at your GP health centre, and see the restrictions in place there for patient/doctor face to face contact, and compare that to having dental treatment. £7 will seem like a snip.