To completely blame the Tories for the state of dentistry and think it’s a disgrace they’re doing nothing about it.

[N0addedsalt]

They’ve been in power for a long time. They’ve let the dire situation of dentistry develop and are doing absolutely nothing about it.

It was crap.under Labour too.couldn't get a,dentist for love nor money

I agree. And tbh I’m absolutely terrified of the situation.
I welcome any reasonable suggestions what to do about it. I mean dentistry, as to Tories I do what I can - I don’t vote for them and have brought up DD not to do it either. DH shares the same views of course.

I never had a problem 20 years ago getting a dentist for my children and myself. In fact we changed a few times until we found one that suited us. luckily we are with the same dentist, and he doesn't mind that they are at university and have very infrequent check ups (3 years in one of their cases!) Because they cant get a dentist in their university town.

We had an nhs dentist under labour, all
my children had an nhs dentist. Yes there was a waiting list but eventually you got one. Same dentist has offloaded all nhs patients. The private they offer is £££ and unaffordable. You can’t get on any private dentist list anywhere, nhs doesn’t exist anymore in our area. Tories have been in power 13 years and the steep decline to the dire situation we are in now has happened completely under their watch. They are going literally nothing about it.

All we can do is accept dentistry has been privatised now. It started 20+ years ago as I can clearly remember our NHS dentist turning private and I was late teens. How about something like Denplan where you can spread the cost?

None of my teens will be voting Tory. Zero mental health provision, zero dentistry, NHS being run into the ground, their lives ruined during Covid whilst Tories partied and grabbed PPE contracts….

It’s the way they don’t give a shit and do nothing that gets me. I’ve paid taxes and NI my whole life. I’m now mid 50s and can’t get a dentist for me or my teens. It’s a disgrace.

There are no dentists taking on any patients in our area.

We have always been able to get a dentist. Our current dentist has just gone private but the fees are cheap, £15 for the kids check ups. Brexit has caused this, which people voted for. I am not sure this is entirely the fault of tories.

None taking any on in my area either (NW) I paid £135 last year for a private check up and clean and last week £49 for 5min check up. I’m going to have to go on their plan just to ensure my baby gets seen which is £22 a month… it’s totally crap

The problem isn't the government the problem is dentistry as an industry. I've been lucky in so far as we have a lot of NHS dentists in the area (although that number is rapidly declining) but they have got greedy. I recently swapped dentists because I was sick and tired of being "upsold" expensive treatments I don't need or want, such as Invisalign.

It's always been problematic to get a dentist you can trust.

You can't tell your teens how to.vote ,I think your looking back with rose coloured glasses ,I was mental.health nurse for many years and the rot,started with Labour ,twice I was redeployed in 12_months due to cuts between 2005-2006, and I remember not being able to.access NHS,dentistry under them ,and people having to.travel.for miles to.access an NHS,one ,certainly things haven't improved ,,but anyone who.thinks that Labour is going to wave a magic wand ,is living in cloud cuckoo land

Not telling my teens how to vote. They can see for themselves how they’ve been shafted as a demographic- Brexit, education, NHS, Covid, environment….

The list is endless.

I'm certainly not someone to shy away from criticising Tory governments, however the appalling state of the dentistry in the UK is not just down to the Tories.

Ok so what are they doing? They’ve had 13 years.

I just typed into Google "NHS Dentistry plan" and found this https://www.england.nhs.uk/2022/07/better-access-to-nhs-dental-services-under-new-reforms/ which led me to this https://www.england.nhs.uk/primary-care/dentistry/dental-commissioning/

It seems pretty comprehensive if you fancy a read

It isn't the fault of the Tories, it happened on Gordon Brown's watch ;

https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/nhs-dentists-treat-500-000-fewer-patients-after-labour-s-controversial-new-contract-6648551.html

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/jul/02/health.health

I doubt many first time voters will be voting Tory.

“The NHS is determined to overhaul dental provision, with a focus on increasing access to necessary dental care and supporting prevention, today’s reforms are the first step on that journey.”

Supporting prevention will
mean million pound tv campaign contracts given to their friends.

All the rest of it in that link is meaningless as there are no nhs dentist and in many areas no private dentists either. So what are they doing about that?

Until there is an nhs dentist with an open waiting list within an hours drive for a family of 5 or failing that an affordable private one all of that in the link is meaningless waffle. They know there are no dentists so why come out with such pointless meaningless drivel.

What are they doing about us as a family having even a waiting list to join? Nothing is what they’re doing and it’s a disgrace.

@N0addedsalt they are absolutely useless. They don't care.

How much taxes have you paid?

How much have you received from public services?

Some people are net providers, and some are net receivers. The ratio has shifted more towards net receivers in the last three decades.

The culture today is one where many net receivers feel entitled to more and more from the social pot. As that burden increases, the social pot is forced to stop funding other services to cope - such as NHS dentistry. This is mostly why all our public services are in such dire straits.

Want to get the country to be more prosperous? Tone socialism down and make people pay directly for more of what they use.

I'm tired of the Tory attempts to paint workers as scroungers for wanting decent public services while their crook friends fuck off with millions of ££££ of taxpayer money.

No don’t want a more prosperous country( prosperity only goes to the rich,normally Tories) just a functioning NHS that was the envy of the world. Oh and a dentist waiting list. It’s frankly appalling that this isn’t an option now and a government doesn’t care and doesn’t do anything about it.

The way you've phrased this will mean this turns into a torybot whataboutry fest. So, to pre-empt the inevitable, can all tory apologists save us some time by just replying with the number assigned to your preferred response.

1 - Yabu, a Labour government wouldn't do any better.

2 - YABU, a labour government would be even worse!

3 - YABU, It was just as bad under labour.

4 - YABU, What did labour do about it when they were in power?

5 - YABU, the country is overpopulated and services can't cope (not migrant specific, for migrant rant see option 8).

6 - YABU, people should take more responsibility for their oral health, then they wouldn't need a dentist.

7 - YABU, something to do with benefit scroungers / junkies clogging up the system .

8 - YABU, something to do with migrants / health tourists clogging up the system.

Should have added

9 - YABU, it's the greedy dentist industries fault.

I'm interested to hear what you'd do to fix the situation?

Take out the "tax the corporation's" and "pay the staff more" as that isn't going to bring any immediate relief.