Disgusted By Dentists Behaviour!!!

[Windchangeface]

We moved home week before the pandemic and then non of the dentists were taking on patients.

This made me very nervous, I kept an eye out to jump as soon as they opened up.

Well...as of a few weeks ago 3/5 practises within a 15 mile radius of us put up notices on their websites ‘taking on new patients’ great I rang to register me, DH and small DS. But oh no, they aren’t taking on any NHS patients only private or Denplan! (Would cost us a minimum of £50 per month and I’m currently pregnant so should be free anyway). The receptionists at all 3 massively tried to sell me Denplan and actually made me feel like a total sponge for asking about NHS.

‘Most families prefer Denplan’ erm sorry Shannon but I highly doubt ‘most’ families prefer to spend £50+ per month on something that should be £20 a visit for them and free for their kids!

One of the receptionists even told me (in a very snooty tone) ‘no we aren’t taking NHS patients we’ve got enough of those) another stated ‘we’ve met our quota for NHS so are only taking paying patients’.

Given DH is a Dr who spends all day looking after hospital patients free of charge I’m at a loss to understand why dentists feel they’re above the NHS.

Horrible, elitist attitude excluding people who can’t afford to pay from adequate healthcare and forcing those who can to pay high premiums they shouldn’t have to!

Think you’ve fundamentally misunderstood how nhs dentistry works. Dentists contract with the nhs to Olivier units if dental activity. If they are exceeded, they aren’t paid unless you can agree Witt the local commissioners

My DH is a dentist amend volunteered to work in an nhs urgent care dental centre where he still is. He helped set it up last March. It’s a hot hub so treating covid+ patients. I am massively proud of him and the rest of the dental team working there under hugely difficult circumstances

Please educate yourself on how nhs dentistry works before coming here and writing non-evidence based rubbish

Nhs dentists should be available to all regardless of income. We are taxed to cover these services.

It's a nightmare, I've moved, my dentist is 140 miles away and due to covid I couldn't travel. Ended up at the emergency dentist. I think we'll bite the bullet and pay for a plan as my teeth are pretty crap.

I can't believe what I'm reading. You still pay towards NHS treatment. It costs 65.00 for a basic filling, which is a lot of money for many people and leads to people not going to the dentist regularly. Then the NHS has to pay more for emergency extractions, with more problems for the patient. Lots of people entitled to free treatment can't access dental care, and again how wrong. Dental services need to be accessible for all as problems with your teeth can be detrimental to your heart and lead to other health problems. It's not just teeth. I agree OP it's awful.

@SoupDragon

We are all paying for this

The point is that we aren't paying enough though.

Exactly

Many NHS dentists are only seeing emergencies at the moment because they are swamped after the pandemic. NHS dentistry has been in crisis for decades and now the pigeons are coming home to roost big time. Nothing will be done as it is just too expensive.

I would just grit my teeth and pay up. Good dental health is so important.

I think that it is not the Dentists fault. They have to earn a living and taking on a quota of nhs patients combined with private is clearly the way to do it.
I agree, basic dental treatment should be free at the time of need equally to everyone.
Or the govt. should have the balls to say that it isn't. It's only available to people on xyz benefits and therefore it's a cost to factor onto the family budget for everyone else.

@Orgyofsausages

Who is 'Shannon'?

Karen’s stuck up daughter.

I think people are forgetting that most people still pay when seeing an nhs dentist, but it’s capped which is fairer. It really does need an overhaul. Not all dentists are purely about profit, some keep their fees lower. However many are clearly making a large profit. Personally think the fairest thing would be higher nhs prices, a fee for each treatment but capped at a maximum amount per year. Everyone pays except children and very low incomes.

Your husband is a doctor - if someone wrote a post with the headline slamming the doctors at his clinic because of what a receptionist said wouldn’t you be angry?
It’s standard that dentists set a quota for how many nhs patients they have on their books. It’s very common to be told their quotas are full.
And please don’t do the whole my husband treats people for free...unless you are saying that he is volunteering his time and not getting a salary? He’s chosen a job where he is being paid to treat nhs patients for - it’s the National health service. We pay for it through our taxes so not really free.

@Gobbolinothewitchscat

Think you’ve fundamentally misunderstood how nhs dentistry works. Dentists contract with the nhs to Olivier units if dental activity. If they are exceeded, they aren’t paid unless you can agree Witt the local commissioners

My DH is a dentist amend volunteered to work in an nhs urgent care dental centre where he still is. He helped set it up last March. It’s a hot hub so treating covid+ patients. I am massively proud of him and the rest of the dental team working there under hugely difficult circumstances

Please educate yourself on how nhs dentistry works before coming here and writing non-evidence based rubbish

I think lots of people assume NHS dentistry is run along the same lines as other NHS services and that dentists are choosing to be greedy or snooty or something in not taking on more NHS patients.

Your husband and his team are heroes for what they do.

I agree OP. Soon if the conservatives get their way they’ll continue to chip away at what healthcare is included in the NHS.

Tbh, OP, you lost me when you said, more than once, that your DH as a junior doctor is on an average salary. This is just patently not true.

Average salary in the uk (full time work) is 38,600k as of Dec 2020 according to ONS

To be clear I didn’t actually speak to a dentist just the receptionist so when I say ‘disgusted at dentists behaviour’ I’m not singling out an individual dentist but the whole attitude of dentistry and the practises.

Ofc DH receives a wage (not as much as many seem to think though), as do dentists but my DH and his colleagues spend all day every day caring for patients who aren’t directly charged for their care. They are all NHS.
I know there are long waiting lists for some nhs medical procedures but only because there are too many people needing them, despite 100% of resources going toward NHS patients.
In dentistry they can’t meet the need because they’re closing off half their week to only see private patients and earn more money. It’s like the local hospital saying ‘yeah that 1 year waiting list is now gonna be 3 years because we are only taking paying patients on Wednesday and Friday!’

Ofc it’s more the governments fault than the dentists but the way the receptionist spoke to me really upset me. Imagine if I were a struggling mum on benefits the last thing I’d need is to be patronised and spoken down to like that!

I'm not sure why you're disgusted with an individual dentist's behaviour. Blame the system, not one dentist operating within it.

That said, I agree with you that dentistry is a shambles in this country and of course Covid has made it much worse. I recently paid for a private check up for my 3 year old (who is registered with an NHS dentist) because he hadn't had a check up in over a year and our NHS dentist could offer no time frame within which they might be resuming children's check ups. It is so important to catch any dental issues in children early and prevent them escalating, so it was worth the cost to me for the reassurance. Shocking that, despite being entitled to free NHS care, children's care can depend so much on whether their parents can afford to pay.

@FeelthewrathofthesuperRad

As a professional person do you also have health insurance, so that you can leave the very limited go slots, surgery slots, a&e slots to children and those that cannot afford to pay

This is a thread about dentistry or did you miss that?

Good god do you actually think because I accept I have to pay for my dentistry and prefer to leave NHS dental slots to those that need them, that I should not avail myself of any other national healthcare whatsoever.

And no I don’t have private medical insurance and even when I did, I never had dental insurance.

The process of removing dentistry funding from the NHS was begun around 40 years ago. Despite its many faults this government is not the only one responsible for the current situation, all the others have had the chance to rectify the situation but decided that nuclear weapons were a higher priority.

Sorry, just seen that you mean dentists generally. Maybe remember that dentists as a profession bear a lot of risk and don't make megabucks. They see private patients to balance their books because the government pays peanuts.

We all managed to register with our village dentist as NHS patients 10 years ago.
I would phone round more dentists, and once you have one, it's worth sticking with it.

It’s like the local hospital saying ‘yeah that 1 year waiting list is now gonna be 3 years because we are only taking paying patients on Wednesday and Friday!’

But this is what happens. NHS doctors also work in private practice and have time away from their NHS job to do so. So they could well be off every Friday or whatever to do private work.

Why are people acting like paying NHS prices for dentist fees is wrong? It's literally what we pay taxes for. Private isn't the standard expectation for people in the UK - it's an extra if people feel they can afford it. It is normal to pay NHS prices for check ups/fillings/crowns whatever - not grabby

@Windchangeface

I don’t think the NHS is a never ending source of money but what are people who can’t afford private dental supposed to do? Shouldn’t at least children be guaranteed care?

I feel like if it were hospitals acting this way ‘yes you do need the operation but we’ve met our quota of free operations so you’ll either have to pay for it or go away’ then people would be having a fit! I’m unsure why dentists are the service that it’s ‘ok’ to do this with.

Well that does happen doesn't it. You can wait x number of years or pay. I know plenty of pensioners who have ended up paying for cataract surgery or hip replacement because the wait was so long. I've got cataracts, I've been told 3 or 4 years ago I'd have got an op at this stage, now I've got to wait till I'm virtually blind or pay.

If you're young and healthy you probably don't experience this but it happens. The NHS is struggling.

And NHS dentistry is a thing so why should OP get out of this 'mindset'?

Indeed, why shouldn't the OP get something for her tax payments? Even NHS dentistry is not free. But then people elected a Government which prioritises nuclear weapons over health care, and as this thread shows, quite a number of posters would appear to think this is acceptable.

I would love to see the Government try to send each family a bill for their share of the nuclear weapons upgrade the Government has planned. I wonder just how many would willingly stump up, in the way that they are stumping up for private dental care.

My dentist offers NHS for children and Denplan for adults.

I do think the lack of basic dental care on the NHS is appalling and it's bad economics too beacuse tooth decay and gum infection lead to other expensive health problems.