To think dentists have become unaffordable?

[Eurydice84]

I went for a teeth cleaning today, £98! The hygienist recommended I get it done very frequently, four times a year, and made me feel bad for not doing this already.

Who can afford dentists in these dire financial times?!

My hygienist is ‘only’ £65 and I wouldn’t be happy paying more than that. We’re in the North West.

I have family members who are dentists. They are millionaires and drive Ferraris (plural). NHS doesn’t pay enough that’s true, but they are certainly making a lot of money from private patients

My NHS dentist always gives me a cheeky 5 to 10 minutes scale and polish at my 6 monthly ( 23 quid check ups) …..I got this dentist in lockdown after going to my local MP who took my case to NHS England…..so I feel very very lucky that 1. I’ve got an nhs dentist at all…..and 2. I got such a lovely thorough one

I pay £21 a month Denplan and get 2 dental and 4 hygienist appointments a year. I have some gum recession in back teeth ( I'm in my 60s) and since I moved to this dentist, it has been kept under control.
I've had no fillings etc for 40 years and no extractions.. I want to keep my teeth and its a small price to pay

I have Simply Health and on the cheapest rate which is about £10 a month. It covers 75% of some things like checkups and hygienist and half of all treatments, full cover for emergencies.

It's a private dentist but they give free checkups to the DCs if you as a parent are on their list.

Millionaires with multiple ferraris, really? They must be the outliers then and earn way above the average salary, dread to think how many hours they are putting in to make so much in dentistry.

I have an NHS dentist, 6 monthly check ups and I also see the hygienist every 6 months. My hygienist appointment this week was £60.

Den Plan sounds interesting. How do you set it up? I’m in a new area so don’t have a dentist yet. Do I need to find a dentist first or do I set up Den Plan first?

And if it turns out I don’t like my dentist can I stay on Den Plan but move dentists?

Denplan £18 per month for 1 dentist and 2 hygienist visits a year. Could do without the expense at the moment tbh, but think it's important. Cost £130 to fill a broken tooth (had to fill newly broken tooth and refill next tooth) last month - I could have cried.

Hygienist usually takes about 40 minutes. DMum's NHS practice does a check up and scale and polish in ten minutes so you can imagine how good that is . Mum needs her teeth removing and dentures but NHS dentist isn't interested.

I'm having a pretty bad dental week. Had a root canal on Wednesday (€750), that evening a nearby filling came lose so I had to go back yesterday and have that replaced - a further €180. Still feeling sick quite honestly!

Just paid £65 to drill out a fractured filling (25+ years old) and refill. Included price of check up. Lovely dentist, great practice.

I go to a fully private dentist (lucky I know) the dentist has started to do my cleanings at my 6 month check ups, Instead of it being £95 with the hygienist it’s £40 with the dentist ! I think most dentists don’t tell you this especially the ones who also work with nhs patients as their so over run and probably want the extra money for the practice.

£98??? What that in central London? I pay £69 in sw London.

I was quoted £75 fir a scale and polish. It's actually cheaper if you get the dentist to do it, as it's a level 2 treatment on the NHS.

I've never thought of dentist as a major expenditure until today. Couldn't get an NHS check up until February 2023 so booked us all in privately at £54 per check-up which was today - no trouble getting appointment if private. Thorough and nice dentist but hit with deposit £300+ for DH and I to have future crown, and fillings totalling £3,000. BTW for the £54 check-up didn't even get a clean. Presumably you have to pay extra for that? Going private a whole new experience for us. Grown up DD who came with us says her friends don't bother with dental check-ups due to the cost

98 quid, it sounds like for an hour or 45 minutes of cleaning? Mine doesn't take more than 25 minutes, I pay 50 quid, so I can justify the cost. I pay more attention to hygiene at home (tuft brush is great to reach areas where you'd normally have buildup), so I don't need to see hygienist that often. Last time I saw her was in August last year. Seen my dentist recently and he told me there's no need for hygienist visit.

My DP had this for years - dental hygienist being private and expensive and all things not covered by NHS.

DMum dentist has just gone completely private - and she was dreading the prices but despite having poor teeth - 3 kids had an impact on her teeth - she been pleasantly surprised at monthly cost.

It doesn't cover everything has % of lab work but DH and I had no choice after moving here but Denplan and while it's a additional monthly expensive we haven't so far needed to pay for more work on top.

In both cases it's been the dental practise that told us about the plan and given forms to set up and done the assessment of level @ChChange - they have a webpage which has search for local practise using them and other information.

It varies from practice to practice.

The thing is it's not even the dentists refusing NHS patients. It's the practices and who owns them. The NHS contracts are an absolute shambles and unless they change it, it isn't worth anyones time.

Yes it's just you, that's almost £400 a year.

No. £54 is your basic check up. They usually don't cover the cost of X-rays either.

Even on NHS you'd only get a S&P on band 1 if clinically necessary.

I have a friend who is a dentist and she said the treatment you get as an NHS patient is greatly inferior to that as a private patient due to how NHS funding works. She said a scale and polish by NHS dentists is only on the front 4 teeth, rather than the whole set. There's also something about how a root canal on NHS is nearly as thorough.
I'm entitled to free dental care but I'm seriously thinking to start denplan. I keep telling my dc that teeth are an investment that we need to take great care of.

The NHS contracts are an absolute shambles and unless they change it, it isn't worth anyones time.

I doubt they will - it's privatisation by the back door but by bit.

When we moved here and there were no NHS dentists - but no-one wanted to be upfront about that.

It’s certainly a luxury service that’s for sure. I pay the sane for the hygienist. It will no doubt go up again.

This is one thing that's gone up a shocking amount since the pandemic.

I was having regular (six monthly) hygienist visits for £50 until the pandemic struck. When I went back it was £89 and now £95, but you still can't get an appointment without booking months in advance, so a guess supply and demand justifies the price.

When (adult) DD needed fillings recently I was surprised how cheap it was though, albeit that was NHS treatment.

Yes. It’s just you. £98 is a lot of money for a lot of people or have you missed what’s happening to the economy?

This is a good tip. I am about to pay £2,000+ for young adult DS to have root canal. I think once he's had it I will insist he gets a dental plan in place!