No not understand how our NHS dentist can say our whole family of 5 are now not NHS and must pay private monthly fees to stay

[P3ff3r]

Said monthly plan doesn’t even cost of treatment.

We were NHS, how can we not now be and who can afford private x5 at the drop of a hat like that?

If the dentist loses their NHS contract, this is what has to happen.

Why contracts are still being curtailed when there is such a lack of NHS dentists baffles me

I pay per month for the dentist at £15 but that covers me and my daughter until she's 18, however it goes up constantly as when I signed up 4 years ago it was £9.50. I can just afford it as it stands but come April I've no idea. we can't afford to have my partner on the plan but we also can't find an NHS dentist anywhere. My current dentist has a waiting list of 8 years. I feel for you op.

I find it laughable that people still believe they are contributing for their own healthcare by paying NI.

@Hathertonhariden

What do the dentists on here think will happen to the nation's dental health over the next few years? Private dental care is unaffordable for many and not everyone is in a position to go abroad for dental treatment. Are govt/dental profession just going to shrug their shoulders and focus on those who can pay?

I fear they are trying to phase out NHS Dentistry all together. They’re making the targets that Dentists need to meet in order to keep their NHS funding more unrealistic by the year. There are some excellent, ethical NHS Dentists that I have worked for over the years but sadly many of them are now holding their hands up and saying they’ve had enough.

I'm surprised you've managed to have an NHS dentist this long tbh. I moved about 15 years ago and couldn't get any NHS dentist at all. I couldn't even get a private appointment so ended up signing up to Denplan with a practice in the next town, it's extortionately priced and a 30 minute, £9 bus ride each time too.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

Children develop dental decay ( in almost all circumstances ) as a result of the diet and care they receive

Both my children inherited my shit chalk like teeth. So that’s not always true.

They inherit your eating and dietary habits. Also you have probably passed on your oral bacteria which may have influenced the decay rate.

@AlmostAJillSandwich

Have you had at least yearly check ups to stay on the list? If not they'll bump you off the list and replace with someone on the waiting list, they only have limited NHS places, better they're filled with people who actually go.

A bit ridiculous to bump patients for not having an annual checkup given that:

1. Many dentists were closed to non-urgent appointments for large parts of the pandemic
2. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence recommends check-up intervals of up to 2 years for adult patients with no dental health issues and
3. When we called out dentist before Christmas last year to book a check-up the next appointment they had was in October this year!

Look around for an alternative nhs dental practice … 🤷🏻‍♀️

www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-dentist

this will show you dentists accepting NHS patients. some say only by referral, so i guess that’s if you have an issue that takes you to Minor Injuries at a hospital. if you can’t find a dentist there’s an NHS Customer Care helpline.

i spoke to a friend yesterday who was facing a £1300 charge for 2 root canals. I searched her area and found her an NHS dentist. they are out there, you just may need to travel a bit further.

i agree that it’s a shambles. kicking NHS patients out is unconscionable. it’s unfair that people have to do so much legwork just to find dental care. i consider myself extremely lucky to be with a practice that has kept me on despite covid and is now back to doing NHS treatment. it’s a fucking disgrace that people can’t easily access dental care.

I’m private and my teeth are a mess because of long term medication. About to have some extensive work and it’s costing me around 10k.

I’m not rich, and part of this will be under a medical loan. But it is what it is. Life isn’t fair, and the NHS isn’t an inexhaustible pot of magical money.

What's an NHS dentist?

Your MP should be aware of the ongoing discussions on contract reform for NHS dentistry and should be representing your community.

Some MPs were debating on this yesterday (Thursday 10th Feb) in Westminster Hall. Sounds promising, but having read the minutes I don't feel hopeful.

Debate Name: Access to NHS Dentistry

Here's a mention of it on the government website if anyone's interested:
committees.parliament.uk/committee/202/backbench-business-committee/news/160843/westminster-hall-to-hold-a-general-debate-on-access-to-nhs-dentistry/

Here's the link to the Hansard minutes of the meeting:
hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2022-02-10/debates/32D38E00-1C1E-4FA3-AEB3-591FF7F5362C/AccessToNHSDentistry

The general gist is that the disasterous contract form 2006 puts disincentives for dentists to remain in the NHS. Reform rhetoric seems to have been ongoing since 2011. It wraps up with saying they should meet again in 6 months time for a progress report.

Also, there was a Commons debate a few days earlier (Debate name: Dentist Industry and NHS Backlogs), Hansard minutes here: hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2022-02-07/debates/1B321002-1A60-45D0-BFEA-F9EF689B8757/DentistIndustryAndNHSBacklogs#780

@Namechangehereandnow

Look around for an alternative nhs dental practice … 🤷🏻‍♀️

I just did a search and there are none in a 50 mile radius of my home. Fortunately, I have good teeth and can pay but others do not.

My DH is a dentist - he is fully private.
Two things to note as i understand them - often the cost that patients pay on the nhs is, like prescription charges, not the same as the actual cost a procedure costs to do. Neither is it the amount that the dentist doing the procedure is paid. What patients pay goes to the treasury. The dentist’s nhs contract pays them. So whilst from a patient perspective you look at nhs charges and private charges and compare them, from the dentists perspective it isn’t a case of looking at those two amounts.
Secondly, comparing gps and dentists nhs remuneration can’t be done. Dentists are paid on a patient seen basis - gps are paid differently. I believe gps can also get contributions to premises costs etc - which all make a difference.
Dentists were not well supported during COVID. It’s not going to get better unless it becomes a lot more attractive to do nhs care.

From the nhs website:

If after contacting several dental surgeries you still cannot find a dentist accepting NHS patients, call NHS England's Customer Contact Centre on 0300 311 2233.

NHS England commissions dental services in England and is required to meet the needs of their local population for both urgent and routine dental care.

And equally hospital doctors are employed - which again is different. My DH loves his work, but there are many times when I look at our insurances needed for self employed sickness and we take the hit on earnings - as all self employed do - when we go on holiday - that I think employment has definite advantages!

I think the BDA latest survey says average dental salaries are £58k. For a stressful and hard to get into profession. We won’t be encouraging our children to go into this field.

Have a lot of empathy for NHS dentists, during lockdown the commercials were highly adverse. Outside COVID, the funding envelope and contract/model appears highly adverse. Suspect at a political level, NHS dentistry has been a model for the sabotage of GP services - undermining provision, corporatisation and encouraging private insurance for the relatively wealthy and healthy. I think it will take a change in government relatively soon to short-circuit that. If not, dentists, like GPs, will be financially much better off as a result of the changes and less wealthy patients much worse off.

In 5 years time this conversation will be about GPs. This is just a practice run for ditching all but emergency NHS provision across the board.

I’ve been at the same practice since I was little (56 now) one of the nhs dentists back in the 80s filled teeth for the sake of it.

My present dentist joined in 1998, went private in the later 2000s. He is fab. However he said to me that nhs dentists are so stressed trying to get patients through the door, it was just awful.

They’ve been through so much through the pandemic but I can see mine. NOW if you want to see a GP at my practice that’s a different story ! My daughter in law is 11 weeks pregnant and cannot see a midwife or GP. The nhs is stuffed.

Our NHS dentist moved to private only work. None of us now have checkups.

@ENoeuf

^^ that’s really rubbish pinkpussycat ours at least kept us on even though they cancelled twice. Husband just scraped back in.

I decided to phone them as it wasn't actually my fault I haven't been and much to my surprise I'm still registered. I've made an appointment for a check up in June as I recently saw a private dentist.

A few years ago the dental practice I’d been with since childhood decided it would no longer offer nhs and would become completely private, luckily I found another nhs dentist.

Mollysocks "Exactly I looked after mine perfectly. I have a small mouth and my dentist when I was a child didn’t take enough of my teeth out to account for my wisdom teeth. So when they came through they impacted into my sinus cavity, became infected and I couldn’t chew for 2 months. Nothing to do with looking after teeth!"

Off topic slightly but I would be surprised if dentists take out teeth of a child to account for wisdom teeth that haven't yet erupted? That would be far too premature as some wisdom teeth don't ever come through and when they do it's normally the wisdom teeth that are removed, not molars.

I also have a small mouth etc and when my wisdom teeth started erupting (but were impacted due to limited space), the wisdom teeth were all removed under general anaesthetic before they could make a problem.

There's no way I'd pay a monthly fee to a Dentist just to stay on their patient list. You'd be better off paying monthly for insurance so at least treatment would be covered. If you can't find another NHS dentist then maybe look into that, and choose another dentist regardless. I'm sure you'd be able to find another private dentist that doesn't insist on a monthly fee, I've never heard of such rubbish!

And as an aside, we use a private dentist that doesn't take on adult NHS patients, but our kids get free NHS treatment because me and DH are patients. That's at least worth pursuing, even if you can't find an NHS dentist for everyone, you should at least be able to find one that will take the adults on privately, but treat the kids under the NHS.