To think this must be making dentists life difficult?

[denimflowers]

Just a caveat that I'm sure this is all covid and it's crap for everyone. I know I am BU really. Just very miserable at the moment

Dentist check ups were all stood down over covid and then I've had 3 cancelled due to dentist cancelled / I had covid / covid in the house etc etc. All rebooked but pushed back later and later. Cancel in February rebooked to July - nothing sooner. The only option is routine check up or severe pain / emergency appt with whoever free in the practice.

Obviously I've now entered a dental disaster period. Out of nowhere I've got 4 teeth that are hurting. Went for emergency appt, had to have an extraction. Appointment lasted over an hour as complicated then needed 4 more emergency appointment due to complications (stitches / infection / dry socket etc) - I guess this could have been possibly been avoided with a sooner check up.

Every time I've seen a different dentist there they've all said the same - you need a good check up / full X-rays so we can get a full plan of what's going on and needed. But there aren't any appointments. All I can have is a patch up job as emergency and wait for July - and hope that isn't cancelled too.

Surely every time I go in for an emergency it's more work (especially as I'm the sort that nothing ever goes smoothly for). I don't even know how they fit in routine treatment after a check up as that doesn't seem to be an option. I'm on a waiting list for a cancellation check up but my work in a hospital means I can't just drop and run easily.

I'm exhausted with the mental load of this. How I'm going to get the next problem sorted, how will I manage work, how am I going to eat at the moment as it's all uncomfortable. I'm not sleeping and losing weight.

I know it's shit for dentists too though. They can't like working like this either.

I was lucky to go to the dentist in February. I was asked to book a 6 month check up and when I asked, the receptionist said that they could not book that far in advance due to catching up with patients. They suggested that I called back in May to get booked in.

I decided to chance it with a call last month... they were only able to book me in for an appointment in November! Ridiculous.

I know I am lucky to have a dentist but mine is stretched to the limit and they are struggling to recruit new dentists.

There is nowhere here taking NHS patients and I couldn’t get an appointment as a private patient in an NHS practice at all in 2020. I had a year old crown that fell out, a broken tooth and another tooth that needed a crown, but the practice would do nothing. In the end I found a wholly private practice and had the treatment. It cost £1600 and I’m still paying it via an interest free credit card.

I was thrown off the dentists books as I was due an appt a month after the lockdown started.

When I tried to make an appointment (when they reopened) I was no longer a patient because "you havent been within two years.".

They wouldn't hear a bar of it being because they WEREN'T OPEN! 🤦🏻‍♀️ They're not taking on NHS patients either (neither are any other dentists in our local or surrounding areas).

All complaints would only answer that it was within their patient guidelines. Funnily enough I'm not the only NHS patient it's happened to at that practice and they're filling up with private patients. Read into that what you will.

Just looked up dentists near me taking on new NHS patients and there are none.

Obviously glad I am registered with mine but it is clearly a problem generally.

It’s to do with government funding, just not financially viable to see nhs patients. None of us would work for nothing.

ive had similar OP, I’ve had the emergency treatment and to their credit it’s been dealt with promptly. Although, a lot of that was because I went on the cancellation list and was fortunate enough that I could drop everything and get there with little notice. But I’ve had two check ups cancelled and been told repeatedly I ought to go!!

Same here. Our NHS dentist kept cancelling my partner and me during the last 2 years and after 18 months of this, we asked the practice if we could have private appointments. "Yes indeed! How would tomorrow (the day we should have been there for our NHS appontments) suit you?" WITH THE SAME DENTIST. My question was: if he could see us in those slots privately, would he just have sat on his arse doing nothing if we hadn't taken them up?

This year, more of the same and I pinged a filling out whilst flossing - no chance of seeing the NHS dentist to have it replaced so we caved in and went private locally. It was a 35 minute drive to the previous one and now I can walk to the dentist in 10 minutes.

We were booted from our NHS dentist after cancelling twice with covid symptoms. I now have a severely damaged tooth (half of it missing) and pain across my lower gum line. I can't find an NHS dentist to take us on. I have just put my youngest dd(7) private (she has issues which could cause damage to her teeth and her checkup was £12 fortunately her teeth were in great condition). I was able to get a dental appointment for her quickly (two weeks but I probably could have got her seen sooner if I didn't request a particular dentist) but I really can't afford private for myself.

if the only dentists are private, does anyone pay into a plan?

I've just had my check up pushed back to September. This is not only because of Covid. It's a multi-dentist place, they have about 6 treatment rooms but only have two dentists now working there. They just can't get through all their patients so have had to prioritise those who need urgent work done.

Yes it's crap for everyone.

As a dentist who works in the specialist services, my own general dentist has now left the NHS. There is no option of registering with another NHS dentist, either within that practice or within the county.

I have a lot of sympathy with the reasons for them becoming Private. I'm just glad I don't work in that NHS system myself.

It is not only NHS. Our Denplan practice which does have a NHS list is also running behind unless an emergency. We have had check ups since summer 2020 but any treatment is very delayed. I got told off for not having seen the hygienist frequently enough, even though they only restarted last summer and I had seen them then! Now on waiting list for a filling but dd has been waiting more than six months for hers.

It's not about dentists not seeing people. The deep cleaning of surgeries mean they see a patient in one surgery whilst the other is cleaned. It has reduced capacity and did so for a significant amount of time which is why people have to wait longer to get even a regular check up.

DH got booted off because he didn't try to book an appt after his routine one during covid was cancelled. I am still NHS because I accidentally chipped a tooth and they did a check up at the same time as repairing it in January 2021. DD, who is 2 in July, is a private patient. I'm adamant she regular check ups and thankfully they charge a notional fee of £25 which isn't too bad.

Dental care is appalling in the UK. It should be just as much a priority and free at the point of service like all other medical care. It IS medical care.

Forcing them to close during covid has caused many to fall off the NHS lists of practices which were able to boot them off if they hadn't been 'seen' in 2 years, so also a cull there. 'Culled' patients were most likely told they could go private with many practices, instead, when that happened as many dentists have stopped taking NHS patients.

Ditto for orthodontist appointments for teenagers. If they didn't already have braces in their mouth, their appointments were cancelled during Covid and delays of over a year for many for much needed work. It's been an absolute shit show.

It's very sobering reading everyone's stories.

I wonder what dentists think of it all.

I often wonder if they despise NHS patients and want rid of all of us or whether they're horrified at the way teeth in the U.K. is going where only the rich can have dental work done and everyone else has to live in pain.

I work in the NHS and don't know anyone who thinks procedures we do should be chargeable, yet they cost a fortune and is fully funded out of NHS budgets.

How did it go so differently for dentistry?

Really interesting the public opinion of and attitude towards dentists vs GPs. You could argue GPs have had a more difficult working environment, the rise of mental health problems, running the vaccination program and a lot of government initiatives forcing different ways of working (reducing f2f consultations was actually an instruction from the government not an individual GP decision). Everyday on here multiple threads about how GPs are useless with little understanding of the difficult working environment. Compared to this very understanding thread regarding dentists. Interesting.

@Helpwithbills interesting…. Did you know per person, funding for patients in primary care is one of the lowest across the NHS? Yet we all moan about how GPs are overpaid…..

I’m in Scotland. Our dentist opened up in the June or July after the first lockdown as my children and I were seen for check ups in the August of 2020 for a routine check up where they did X-rays as well. I then had various appointments for teeth cleaning and a filling, then a broken tooth was fixed in December 2020. Then we were back in February 2021 for a check up, where I was told I needed my teeth cleaned again 🤔 and another filling. I’ve never had my teeth cleaned so often as this dentist did them!

The dentist we were seeing has now left, but they have taken on two new dentists so I think they’re are now 3 dentists in the surgery, and we had a check up booked in for April. This has been moved to August as it’s only routine and they’d rather wait so they can see more urgent cases. Fair enough, but we got an email last week saying that if you were booked in for a routine check up and felt you had no pressing need to see a dentist to please contact them to move your appointment so they can see the urgent cases.

I don’t understand what is going on, we were seen frequently when they first opened up for almost a year and now suddenly there are so many urgent cases normal routine check ups can’t take place.

I suspect in the first year after the pandemic started, a lot of people stayed away from dentist unless they really needed to be seen - due to thinking they were doing the right thing, thinking surgeries were high risk, not feeling the needed a check up given what was going on etc. Now entering the second / third year, all the problems are gathering pace and everyone wants / needs to be seen.

For everyone who doesn't have an NHS dentist as no access or kicked off their list - what do you do? Have you gone private? Is there some way to make that affordable when you have loads of work needed? Or do you just accept you can't access dentistry anymore?

@Cinnabomb I work at a national level and cover all of primary care in some form. None of the areas in primary care have it easy, and IMO GPs deserve no more sympathy than any other area. They are largely privatised but have access to many perks that other primary care areas do not. Ministers forcibly imposed a contract on GPs this year because it was proving impossible to negotiate a deal both sides would agree too. Needless to say, the deal imposed by ministers didn't give the GPs what they wanted, as they were considered to be rather unreasonable and inflexible on certain elements.

The dentistry model is very different. NHS contracts for dentistry became worth little during covid, it had always been in a dentist's interest to drum up private business, more so since covid.

we are signing the kids up as private for now but myself and husband don’t have access to a dentist anymore, I just hope that I can get through to someone to even add us to the waiting list

My dc has abscesses,she needs her tooth removed,the dentist can’t do it so they referred her to the hospital,7 months later,still no appointment,she’s on her 6th course of antibiotics!

I had to get an emergency appointment as I had a toothache (half the tooth had fallen off so I knew it was pretty bad). I would've been given an appointment to get the tooth out on NHS but my dentist said I could get a root canal and crown instead if I wanted to save the tooth. The only way to do that was to go private as I would've waited for months otherwise, and this was an emergency.

My dentist recommended Denplan which I signed up to and it did save some money, although not much (I got cheaper fillings and free cleaning). I got 6 appointments all done and dusted within about a month after going private (with my own dentist) - root canal, a crown, a few fillings, and a clean. It cost me about £800.

www.theguardian.com/society/2022/may/01/dental-deserts-form-in-england-as-dentists-quit-nhs-experts-warn?fbclid=IwAR3M2-BJ0eQLhH7wFgKAr5sdFDKP1AwXogjR1F9JDa_xrlQT-cA6MUPF-58

Dentists do not despise NHS patients but the NHS contract is unworkable and unethical. So dentists aren’t happy to work in it.
It will go the way of optical IMO. Very core service for kids and exempts, everyone else pays.