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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think Dentists are greedy and disgrace

233 replies

Thisismynamenow · 12/09/2022 09:48

I have a hole in my tooth (thanks pregnancy for the poor teeth!)

My nhs dentist has apparentpy cancelled their nhs contract to go private (without telling patients) and not a single dentist within 20 miles is willing to take on nhs, but everyone can offer same day private appointments.

I know the nhs is underfunded but it's disgusting dentists are allowed to be only private, they should be made to be half nhs!

My tooth is killing me, I can't afford the £400 I've been quoted for the filling (it's a tiny hole, literally a pin hole!) And the hopsitall will only pull it which I don't want. Its annoying me more as i currently have a maternity exemption which I can't use.

Aibu to think dentists are greedy, and that it shouldn't be allowed?

OP posts:
SarfrazDent · 10/04/2023 23:51

Dentists do not have catchment areas unlike GPs - they can technically see anyone within the UK. The issue is when doing referrals the postcode restrictions prevent their software from allocating you to a nearby facility.

SarfrazDent · 10/04/2023 23:54

UK trained dentists walk out of university with 5 years of debt. Additionally they are expected to pay for courses which cost thousands to develop themselves.
One third of dentists are foreign trained and have had no support with costs of 20 thousand to register themselves with exams and loss of earnings during preparation.

Lovepeaceunderstanding · 10/04/2023 23:58

Yes you are unreasonable! Dentists and GP’s aren’t directly employed by the NHS. They are not greedy, they are skilled professionals whose service has a value.

OrderOfTheKookaburra · 10/04/2023 23:59

Trained by the NHS? They must be imagining their university fees then, the same ones that everyone who goes to university gets charged, yet you don't expect them to work at a loss to do work for the government...

TheHateIsNotGood · 11/04/2023 00:08

I wouldn't say that dentists are "greedy" but it's really not worth them providing any, or at best, the minimal NHS services they can - and pretty much only the franchises (eg: MyDentist) still do.

NHS Dentistry has gone from bad to worse the past 20 years; back then a descale was part of a checkup, now there's no preventative care at all, many NHS checkups now last 2 minutes (catching up from Covid).

Extractions can be obtained though - probably more cost-effective than trying to save the teeth of the poor. Less teeth to care for.

Therefore reversing civil society by 100 years, the poor people are easily identified by their bad teeth.

MelodyPondsMum · 11/04/2023 00:12

YANBU. It's a major problem and dentists seem unwilling to engage with it.
It's not the fault of the Tories. Much though I'd love to be able to blane them. In our area, numerous dentists shifted their policies during Covid. Lots of dentists advertised spaces for NHS patients but then actually refused to take any, refused to take DCs and only accepted adults as private patients if they were willing to pay inflated DDs with huge charges on top for treatment. Too many dentists are choosing to opt for earning as much as possible when, in the past, they thought they had a vocation and maximising income wasn't their main consideration.

ODFOx · 11/04/2023 00:16

Years ago many NHS dentists did private work on the side. Then the Government changed the rules so you had to be one or the other. Thus less NHS dentists.

maddening · 11/04/2023 00:19

Yabu.

TwentysixV · 11/04/2023 00:33

I don’t know about dentists but vets certainly aren’t greedy. As said previously they earn about £35k that’s about a fifth of a dentists salary. The degree course is the same length as dentistry and veterinary is harder to get into-so any vet could have got into dental school and become a dentist if they were driven by money.
most vet practices are owned by large companies and vets are on a salary. They have any input into the pricing and don’t earn more if they recommend a more expensive treatment option. The more expensive treatment options are not necessarily more profitable for the practice either-they cost more because of the time and expensive equipment/drugs involved.
compared to vets, doctors and dentists are vastly overpaid-but if the UK didn’t pay dentists as well as they do then many would go abroad/to the US and we’d struggle to recruit/retain any dentists

TwentysixV · 11/04/2023 00:34

*vets have no input into pricing

ReadersD1gest · 11/04/2023 00:36

I know the nhs is underfunded but it's disgusting dentists are allowed to be only private, they should be made to be half nhs!
Don't be ridiculous. How could anyone be forced to work for the NHS? You sound like a petulant child.

TwoMonthsOff · 11/04/2023 00:37

@TwentysixV
where would we be without vets I think they do an amazing job, that salary seems awful, they are worth so much more

Womanofcustard · 11/04/2023 00:40

It’s bad in Scotland as well, under the supervision of ….the SNP.

MelodyPondsMum · 11/04/2023 00:51

Yy because it isn't a party political problem. It's a culture within dentistry problem. It's been negatively impacted by US dentistry trends and consumerist values.

AngeloMysterioso · 11/04/2023 00:53

They’re more than happy to be trained by the NHS at no small cost to the taxpayer.

Once they’ve qualified the NHS and taxpayers who can’t afford private can apparently go fuck themselves.

RobinHumphries · 11/04/2023 07:38

TwentysixV · 11/04/2023 00:33

I don’t know about dentists but vets certainly aren’t greedy. As said previously they earn about £35k that’s about a fifth of a dentists salary. The degree course is the same length as dentistry and veterinary is harder to get into-so any vet could have got into dental school and become a dentist if they were driven by money.
most vet practices are owned by large companies and vets are on a salary. They have any input into the pricing and don’t earn more if they recommend a more expensive treatment option. The more expensive treatment options are not necessarily more profitable for the practice either-they cost more because of the time and expensive equipment/drugs involved.
compared to vets, doctors and dentists are vastly overpaid-but if the UK didn’t pay dentists as well as they do then many would go abroad/to the US and we’d struggle to recruit/retain any dentists

Dentists aren’t salaried so I don’t know where you’re getting your figures from. I earn nowhere near what you say I do and still have to pay my indemnity fees, ARF etc. also as I’m not salaried if I don’t work I don’t earn.
It’s also much harder to get into dental school than medicine and veterinary according to google

TheComptonEffect · 11/04/2023 07:48

YBU
Dentists are not having thier costs fully covered by the NHS for NHS work, so they are having to cover these costs themselves (i.e from private patients). Nothing to do with greed. Why would they work for free. They have been telling us this would happen for years.
The NHS is being systemically underfunded so privatisation is creeping in. This is what the government wants, an American health care system. all to do with profit and money. For them!
We are very close to the point of no return across other sectors too. Staff are striking about it and shouting out but people are not taking it seriously 😣

Backinntheroom · 11/04/2023 07:49

WhereshouldIgo · 12/09/2022 10:04

It’s a disgrace because we pay to train dentists through the NHS and they’re supposed to have the NHS contract in place.
yes, they’re greedy. Yes this is what happens when you let someone regulate themselves.

No, we do not. They have to pay for their university degree, just as drs and nurses do. They end up with the same debts as other professionals
And they have no obligation to provide nhs care

Choppies · 11/04/2023 07:52

@TwentysixV i agree vets are grossly under paid but to suggest most dentists are earning over £150k is ludicrous. I am a full time NHS dentist (not freshly qualified either but with 6 years clinical practice behind me) who’s to-do-list for the day involves applying for child benefit….

Backinntheroom · 11/04/2023 07:53

LizzieSiddal · 12/09/2022 10:12

YABVU.
Blame the goverment who have been underfunding Dentistry for many years. Dentists have been warning this would happen but the public have continually voted for the Tory’s, so you get what you vote for. Maybe use the money from all those tax cuts and all that money saved from leaving the EU to pay for your dentistry. Hmm

(I appreciate you may not have voted for the Tory’s but Tory governments are the reason why you cannot get an NHS dentist.)

dental and prescription charges were brought into the nhs in 1950 by the same Labour government who introduced the nhs 2 years previously.
They realised then that prroviding everything free on the nhs was untenable
Two years after they introduced it; great economics
Know your history before opening your keyboard

Backinntheroom · 11/04/2023 07:57

gnilliwdog · 12/09/2022 15:43

I think children should be prioritised for NHS dental treatment, at least.

😂😂 of course, we always have to 'think of the little children...'

Theluggage15 · 11/04/2023 07:58

AngeloMysterioso · 11/04/2023 00:53

They’re more than happy to be trained by the NHS at no small cost to the taxpayer.

Once they’ve qualified the NHS and taxpayers who can’t afford private can apparently go fuck themselves.

Yawn, they owe zero to the NHS.

ReformedWaywardTeen · 11/04/2023 08:00

You think that's bad?
Our private and NHS dentist was shut throughout Covid unless you were a private patient which we aren't. In that time they decided to change the rules for all non-private patients that if you had not been seen in 6 months, they struck you off. They didn't tell anyone about this. They would not see anyone other than private patients.
So, after the second lockdown when they finally fully opened for non-private patients for the first time since February 2020, and DH needed an appointment for a terrible issue with a tooth, they refused to see him anymore. They said all of us except the DCs were removed under the terms and conditions they brought in in June 2020. The terms weren't even on their website, no patients had been contacted, nothing.

DH and I have now been trying to get a dentist to take us on since April 2021. We simply cannot find one and have called up to an hour's drive away in any direction. We keep being told they cannot add anyone else to their list to wait for a place on their patient list. So there is a waiting list for the waiting list in most

And when you report this to the NHS? They don't care. You get shrugged shoulders and a request to ask the dentist to let us back on their list. Who then tell you no.

The system with dentistry is broken. They get paid regardless. And they're going to find as more people are hit by Cost of living issues, many will quit private care so they will barely have any patients left.

Backinntheroom · 11/04/2023 08:03

Namenic · 14/09/2022 07:20

@Coybubbles - members of the public could also crowdfund to pay for dental care for poor children. Ethics are similar to asking dentists to shoulder the cost. Restaurants and supermarkets could also give some free meals to disadvantaged and they could get free entry to museums and attractions.

This is the most ridiculous post I have seen on MN!

Smoky1107 · 11/04/2023 08:06

We drive an hour to our dentist, the one we had before cancelled appt after appt so I found one local to my work at the time and I moved my daughters there this week. She nhs, she's good but it takes a half days annual leave for us all to go up, get checked and come home again