Struggling to get NHS dentist, quoted £55 for private check up

[Cheeseontoast32]

Cannot find a dentist that is taking on NHS patients.
Has anyone else had this?
Quoted £55 with a private one and that's just for the check up, if I need fillings etc. And scale and polish not sure what I'll be paying.
Every dentist saying they aren't taking on NHS

I’m in east of England - recently had private check up so break down was:
£45 for check up
£16 X-ray (each side so £32 total)
£145 for 1 white filling (to be done at later date)
total £222 had to pay half at check up and remaining amount when I have the filling.

This price is normal. It's probably check up with x-rays. They don't do them each time you come, so next time it will be cheaper.

Unfortunately at the political level, this is a design feature not a flaw and is piloting what will become of primary care/GPs IMO. Have always had sympathy for NHS dentists and especially during COVID.

There is an orchestrated campaign of press and politics to under-resource and under-staff/train new GPs for surgeries and break the system so large-scale offshored, corporatised delivery with grater private top ups. Seems to be working, judging by the press and all the MN threads that consistently speak about 'all GPs are lazy/rubbish/have the doors closed, never answer the 'phone, never see anyone F2F and so on'...

If you have a my dentist near you they do an affordable private plan… check up’s are £35 and work isn’t as expensive as a normal private dentist… I was quoted £290 for a root canal (as opposed to £500 for a normal private dentist). Unfortunately I think we are seeing the end of NHS dentists now so people need to be prepared to start paying. X

Also live in Cornwall, been in waiting list 3 1/2 years. Got no dental treatment while pregnant or during 1st year after having twins; can’t get said twins registered with an NHS dentist and had to put them on the county’s already overstretched waiting list - couldn’t even get them added on with DH and I so we might get offered a dentist but the twins have to wait another 2-3 years after that!!

Contacted a couple of private dentists too who would add us to their waiting list for when they have any vacancies and, if accepted, would cost us £125 each for a new patient registration check up - we can’t afford that and can’t afford Denplan or similar schemes either. So had to say no.

Just hoping I don’t need any treatment in the next 4-7 years!!

Well no, because the Tories + events have made things worse.

Policy choices like brexit and the Tories underfunding everything have made it worse, and then COVID hasn't helped.

Our system is pretty much in line with most of Europe. Why do we think we should all be entitled to completely free dental care under the NHS? Most systems, even universal ones like the UK and Denmark, cover children, the old, and the unemployed, the rest are covered by insurance, or part pay systems.

This. The problem with the NHS being free at point of use is that it creates an expedition that all simile care (opticians, dentist etc) should be free at point of use.

The point is that none of it is actually free and has to be paid for in some way. It costs a lot of time and money to train to be a dentist, rent a premises equip the surgery, employ a nurse and receptionist. If the government won't pay dentists properly from central taxation then we will have to pay for it directly.

I've had Denplan for 25 years since my dentist stopped doing NHS. £40 a month for me and husband. Includes 2 hygienist appts and 2 check ups per year, all fillings and minor dental work. We have to pay for lab work (crown fittings etc). Husband moans it's a bit pricey, but twice during the pandemic I've had 2 dental emergencies (filling dropped out, and got an abscess on tooth) and I got same day appointments and immediate treatment. Both within 3 hours of calling. I think it's worth it. Dental pain is the worst.

'Creates an expectation' 'similar care'

Pretty sure I read an article on nhs dentistry where it explained how they claimed the same amount whether doing a quick check up or a complicated procedure. So essentially if you had too many people with bad teeth on your books you could run at a loss. Just made being an nhs dentist not worth it.
My nhs dentist took on my husband recently but only because he had good teeth- and my baby daughter- as she only had 2 teeth!

We’ve got an NHS dentist (thank God) However, it’s located in our old city as we moved. It’s now a 3 hour round trip whenever we go! Even with the cost of fuel it’s still cheaper than going private and there’s literally no-one round here taking on.

Chemotherapy has absolutely wrecked my teeth and gums. I've been quoted £5,000 to put them right but can't get a nhs dentist so will have to leave them as they are

@PeacockPartyTime same here! It's a 2 hr round trip for me. Can't even get on a waiting list where I live! I feel lucky they haven't kicked me off their books for living too far away!

This.

But it won't ever change, regardless of party, because it is not "normal" to have universal dental care paid for by the state, any state. Why do we think this is a reasonable expectation?

Not sure you make sense here, it has been normal in the UK since first established.

Fine if you don't want it, but that's a political choice, not a law of nature. Own your politics.

@carefullycourageous Agreed, feels normal within the UK which is perhaps why the government hasn't explicitly ended it publicly as a clearly abnormal activity, rather it has been deliberately commercially undermined. Primary care GPs services have been placed on the same trajectory with the support of much of the main stream press.

i admire the thinking, if the government doesn't want to do something or pay for something that might slightly reduce the accretion of wealth to its true stakeholders so they can say it's abnormal. No reasonable person would want the government to pay for abnormal things, would they?

Perhaps everyone might collectively agree not to look at some of the activities to which public spending has been directed recently though.

It's the same everywhere our dentist is taking on any more NHS patient and only offers so many NHS appointments per day. DH recently spent over 1k going private as he couldn't get a NHS appointment.

Wish GP's would do a similar system been trying to get an appointment for 3 weeks now!

Sorry the use of the word "normal" perhaps was misguided.

My point, made badly, was that the NHS, regardless of what it has always done, or was set up to do, cannot possibly continue to cover all and everything. I have done a quick google, and cannot find another country in the world that covers state provided dental treatment, free, to all of it's residents. They all have limits, and/or part pay, and/or insurance. So, we are, in the UK, as usual, trying to sustain a model that is no longer fit for purpose.

OH and I had to go private this year to keep daughter as NHS (we've been with the dentist for 6 years but got bumped off NHS) recently paid £300 for 2 replacement fillings!