to think private dentists have us over a barrel?

[ginghamstarfish]

Just moved area and no NHS dentists in the whole county. DH just went for a checkup with a private dentist. No problems, but over 2 years since last checkup due to pandemic etc. Lo and behold he's come home with a 'treatment plan' which will cost £400. I had similar a few years back, went to a private dentist who was offering free checkups, told me I could set up a payment plan for all the treatment I needed (had no problems, x rays fine). Then went to a NHS dentist who said there was no problem, and there hasn't been since then. I find it hard to trust what private dentists say .... as clearly you'd have to pay another one a further £100 for a 'new patient' checkup to see if they said the same.

I'm a dental nurse working in a private practice and the overheads are astronomical in a way that would shock you. The costs of the equipment, the materials etc all extremely expensive. The reason most people can't get an nhs dentist now is that the cost of the overheads often overtakes the money they'll get paid on the contract. It's not worth them treating a patient that needs lots of fillings etc.

I've not personally seen a dentist over prescribe and normally they will show the patient xrays / photos etc and explain what needs doing and why. Did they not do this?

Interesting timing, my son needed treatment yesterday, my dentist wont see him as an NHS patient. Had to travel 30 miles for him to be seen. Same evening hes in agony the NHS person has completely missed something critical on an xray. After the whole day chasing around via 111 and A&E i give up on my right to have a child treated on the NHS and £38 later the problem goes away.

My choice was loose another days work or pay. They do indeed have us over a barrel

In my experience, this is not the case. My NHS dentist wanted to do unnecessary work after causing a problem to a tooth. I went to an excellent private dentist who told me the work was unnecessary and explained why. He took preventative and monitoring measures. Five years later, he was right. I still go to the practice and the check ups and hygienist alone (mainly the hygienist tbh) are expensive but the way I see it, we regularly pay out to service and MOT our cars but don’t seem to give our own bodies and teeth the same time and money. We’ve got too used to the NHS and getting everything for ‘free’.

That said, the good thing about private is the ability to choose. If you’re unhappy, you can seek a second or third opinion until you find one that you can trust.

@CarPoor beautifully put. It’s as though dentists are being categorised like famously ‘Kwik Fit’ fabricating jobs that aren’t necessary, if anything they are fixing the years of supervised neglect offered by the NHS. Amazes me that people are happy to spend hundreds on non essential items but when it comes to teeth which can’t be replaced ever feel as though they are being swindled in some way. And I am not talking about people on low incomes here.

So people are saying that private dentists have to pay insurance, so why doesn't their insurance cover making mess ups like this? If I paid £800 for any other service or product I would expect a full reimbursement AND compensation for pain, discomfort, loss of earnings and travel. It's a scam.

Well the insurance would cover the dentist if that person took legal action.

Do you understand how business insurance works?

@sagalooshoe did she go back to the dentist and ask them to fix it ? Probably not.
However dentistry isnt like leaky tap. The himan body is constantly changing and not always to our liking. What might gave seemed fixable when you delve in there may not be.

My dentist has quoted £2500 for an implant where one of my teeth can't be saved, I can't afford that so will have to have what's left of my broken tooth extracted and deal with a not very attractive gap. The other option was a bridge but I was advised against it by the dentist, as would involve drilling the two teeth on either side right down when they're perfectly healthy. Then the bridge would need replacing every 5-10 years apparently and I'm in my early 40's

i voted unreasonable because its not the Dentists fault, we had a functioning NHS dental service, we don't now.

Thats down to the Govt, fee's and regulation.

also, Brexit forced '000s of EU dentists to leave because the UK decided to not to recognise their qualifications.

I expect Sunak also has a private Dentist to go a long with his private GP.

Then you need to be able to afford a solicitor to even get your money back. Very few can afford that so it's a lose/lose situation.

My dentist has recommended that I spend £1000 on a root canal treatment (not causing me many problems just yet). I asked for an NHS estimate for the treatment and it came up at £300. Same dentist. When asked what the difference was, she ummed and Ahmed a bit but the upshot was that there was no difference, she would just do a better job for £1000.
I really don't know what to do, totally confused. So I'm going to do nothing for the time being. I think dentists are losing our trust, sorry dentists, I do.

I pay £20 a month for two check ups and two hygienist appointments a year. I’ve never had any other treatment, nothing has even been suggested.

My poor mum, on the other hand, moved house and registered with a new NHS dentist who had her agreeing to all sorts of treatment that left her really uncomfortable until I took her to see my dentist who said it was all unnecessary. The NHS would still have been £100s.

Im sorry some of you have had bad experiences, but NHS dentists can be just as drill-happy when they have bills to pay.

In my area there is a 9-10 year wait for an NHS dentist.
We have no choice we have to pay privately.

Have to say our private dentist is really good, started going when had a different job with free dental insurance and the dentist is so good I can't move to an NHS one. Ours is very much into prevention of teeth going bad with proper cleaning and never seems to recommend unnecessary things

I have a plan with mine £15 a month, two check ups and two hygienist visits a year.
When I was nhs the dentist did a quick scale and polish. My hygienist leaves my teeth sparkling, flossed and literally spotless.
I had a dental emergency recently and the dentist found time to fit me in several times and didn’t charge the emergency fee. So can’t be too greedy!
She was saying they are struggling because of materials/labs costs now too. None of the equipment comes cheap and you expect bang up to date stuff if you go private.

If he's got you over a barrel, he's no dentist.
He working on the wrong end for a start!

That's disgusting. She's basically said you're not worth the effort if you're nhs but you are if you pay more. I find this disgusting.
Can you get an implant abroad? I know there's controversy around Turkey teeth but isn't that the crowns and veneers?
I've been looking into foreign dentistry and they are so advanced compared to the dentists here. How many people, even private have a filling done with a laser and not the drill?
Their clinics are out of this world and I think a lot of the controversy comes from English dentist who are embarrassed at what's lacking in this country. And they're losing out financially. I know four people who have had their teeth done abroad, two went two years ago, one last year and one more recent. They've had no problems whatsoever.

MakingNBaking

Is there an ombudsman you could report them to?

There is the Dental Council but tbh, most dentists like doctors wont give evidence against each other.

That’s what it is.
They dint do it because they love teeth

I have had extensive work down by Plymouth dental school.... they were all absolutely brilliant, the mentors and the students, it was never a business to them, they all clearly loved what they did.. the student who did most of the work for me had the ambition to into facial reconstruction for cancer patients.... unfortunately not in the NHS but in the French health system.

Its not the dentists fault the Govt have run down NHS payments to such a low level that the only option is to go private, a dentist doing extensive root canal will get just a few £100 from the NHS...

The EU private dentist on a regular basis i saw was very fair and professional, after Brexit & then CV, she along with approx 3000 of her colleagues went back to the EU and wont be coming back, as we decided not to recognise their qualifications until it was too late.

@Alexandra2001 a dentist doing extensive root canal will get just a few £100 from the NHS... unfortunately a dentist doing an NHS root canal treatment gets paid a band 2 which can be as little as £69 gross so the dentist gets a proportion of that after the nurse, materials, rent, indemnity and also has to cover an examination, xrays, fillings, scaling if needed.
A change in the payment system introduced on Friday has now increased this to a minimum of £161 for just molar endodontics but it's probably too little, too late for most practices.

An NHS dentist doing a root canal will get about £30 for the whole course of treatment. That include the check up, xrays and any other work you need doing in that plan (e.g fillings/extractions). A good molar root canal takes about 2-3hrs.

The NHS does not pay for the time it takes to carry out a good root canal. It doesn't pay for things like microscopes, decent files etc that are required to carry out a successful root canal.

Now with the change a dentist will get 7 UDAS for a molar RCT, roughly £70. Which is a bit more viable in terms of providing a successful RCT but only if the patient doesn't need lots of other work e.g other root canals/extractions/perio work in that course of treatment.

I've been with a my NHS dentist for 15 years but as I have a health cash plan with work I've offered to go private to let someone else have my NHS place. They said it wouldn't make a difference as they are not taking on any NHS patients at all.