Private Dental Treatment ridiculously expensive.

[Tootsie321]

Went to the dentist last week as I had large filling come out and I had toothache. Dentist just put a temporary filling in as said that is all he can do on the NHS. Temporary filling lasted less than a day, so bought some Dentek and filled it myself.

I have really struggled over the weekend, so phoned dentist first thing this morning. He spoke to me and said that he couldn’t do anything else on the NHS, but if I wanted to be treated privately he could prepare and fill the tooth. I said that would be great and how much extra would I have to pay? He said the treatment would cost approx £400 plus I would also have to pay for the ppe required, which would be an extra £70! I think the normal NHS cost, for this type of treatment, is £60-70.

AIBU to say it is ridiculous that, if you have toothache, a dentist cannot treat you on the NHS, due to COVID. However he can treat you privately for a cost of £470, which is totally out of reach for many people?

For that price there is probably a crown involved so it would be more likely to be the £260 NHS band. Maybe get it pulled?

It’s terrible how people which dental issues are treated in the U.K. let alone now with Covid. Most can’t even get an nhs dentist and now your paying though the roof to be out of pain because nhs just won’t do it currently. Dh has to pay private for an emergency appointment £70 plus ppe charge then a further appointment to have the tooth extracted at over £200 plus ppe again and then a prescription too which isn’t covered on prepay certificates as it’s a dental prescription not a doctors one.

People just cannot afford to have good teeth.

All three children’s normal check ups cancelled in May and no sign of being able to rebook them yet.

@BubblyBarbara

For that price there is probably a crown involved so it would be more likely to be the £260 NHS band. Maybe get it pulled?

Nope, no crown. Did say about getting it pulled, but he said no!

I would try another dentist, a filling in my private dentist is £90 and an extra £7 charge for the ppe! It’s not a “cheap” dentist either. Have a look online, many have price lists on their page.

Wow! I have always used a private dentist, and yes it is more expensive but that is crazy! I had a filling 3 weeks ago, quite a deep one as it took an hour and it was £120, which is about right. I may need a crown if this doesn't work, which he quoted £400/500 for, which again about right.
Can you look around for another dental practice?

You have a weird dentist and I suspect a negligent one too if you’re in pain and they won’t help in this case. It’s time to find a new one.

What? I had a private filling a couple of years ago, white composite one I think it was. Cost me appx £150!

I would have estimated about £200 for a filling at a private dentist.

I have not been able to find an NHS dentist for 25 years!

How can they be seeing private patients but not nhs? That's not good enough.

I have a similar problem I have lost a front crown and my dentist said they can’t do them till at least October. I went to a private one to see what they said ( paid £50 for the appointment) they said their crowns start at £600. It’s not fair on people who can’t afford it.

What your dentist meant was that he doesn’t want to do it on the nhs. He could, but he won’t, for whatever reason. Find a better dentist is the only thing you can do.

How can they be seeing private patients but not nhs?

I suspect they have too much private work on so are only handling NHS cases they are obligated to (children and urgent cases).

Find another dentist, and if you can afford it take out a private dental insurance with Denplan. Some dentists do their own schemes. there is a sliding scale £20-£45 pm approx, depending on the state of your mouth.

In my experience you get MUCH better treatment privately, with preventive treatment for children that wholly NHS dental practices don't even tell you exists or is possible. I only discovered this years ago when I went to a dentist who at the time did both NHS and private so you could have most of your treatment NHS with the option of additional work not available on the NHS if you wished.

IMO the whole area of dental treatment in UK needs much more transparency.

Your dentist sounds like an unprincipled shit just out to cheat the system, fleece his patients and line his own pockets. He is a disgrace to the dental profession and deserves to have all his own teeth pulled without pain relief.

Find another dentist, as others have said private charges should not be as high as this leech is quoting you.

I’m a dentist - that’s high end prices but the real issue is - if you don’t want to pay that price for treatment and don’t trust your dentist to do the treatment to a standard to justify their price then go elsewhere - both patients and dentists deserve to be in a scenario with mutual trust and respect. You don’t trust and respect this dentist so find one you do.

As a dentist - if my patient was not happy to pay the price for the treatment (I’m majority NHS but some still think £62.10 for filling and exam is robbery) then I would rather they went elsewhere because I want a good working relationship where they value my time.

You can definitely find that cheaper but a lot of prices have skyrocketed with Covid as the cost of running a practice has increases massively.

For reference - even a large private filling is usually £120-200

So.... it does look like they are charging an AWFUL lot

My daughter had one recently that cost £265 plus £12 PPE. Yes, it was very expensive but I was very happy with the service - much better than our NHS one who rarely speaks.

I agree though that NHS treatment should be more readily available.

I've had a couple of fillings replaced recently (in the past 2-3 years) and they cost around £90. So even with extra PPE you'd only be looking at £120ish.

However, I was charged £500 in 2006 to pull a tooth out! Admittedly they couldn't just twist and pull, it was more akin to digging it out :(

I have a private dentist and a filling there is up to approx £100 depending on the size etc. The last bill I had for £400 was for root canal treatment so for that price I'd expect a treatment such as root canal or crown.

Seems like he's ripping the backside out of it to be honest, knowing that the NHS aren't providing treatments just now. I'd find another dentist to be honest...

ring 111 and ask if they can refer you to an emergency NHS dentist OP.

It does sound like your dentist is profiteering, OP.
Mine has spent a fortune on state of the art air change ventilation for his surgery, PPE for him and his staff, even a wipe clean disinfectable touchscreen to replace the credit card machine for bill payment. He charged me nothing extra for the PPE - and my private check up, plus manual scale and polish, was just £45.
40% of his practice is NHS patients - I don’t know how on earth he makes a living, especially after all the months on furlough, where the Scottish administration would only pay 80% of his lost NHS income and nothing at all for the private practice.

@BubblyBarbara

How can they be seeing private patients but not nhs?

I suspect they have too much private work on so are only handling NHS cases they are obligated to (children and urgent cases).

I normally see him as an NHS patient. This practice used to be private, but I suspect that they couldn’t get enough private patients, so started taking NHS patients. He sometimes suggests different treatments, which he says he cannot do on the NHS, but can do privately. There usually isn’t this enormous difference in prices, though they are often about double the price of the NHS treatment. I saw him last week as a NHS patient. I’m pretty sure the price was just for tooth preparation and filling, but both him and his dental nurse are Greek, so sometimes things get a little lost in translation. Definitely said £400 plus £70 for ppe. Unfortunately, with the current guidelines, I don’t think I will be able to access NHS treatment anywhere! So, choice is pay nearly £500 (which I can’t afford) or suffer!

@Puffinhead

My daughter had one recently that cost £265 plus £12 PPE. Yes, it was very expensive but I was very happy with the service - much better than our NHS one who rarely speaks.

Mine has quoted £70 for the PPE alone!