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.

The ex Bank of England Governor, Mervyn King, summarised thus country's dilemma best. He basically said the UK had to decide whether it wanted to be a low tax economy or to have a high standard of public services because you can't have both. The problem seems to me that British people want both. They don't want to pay the level of tax yuh would in Sweden or Germany but they want our education and health care to be on a par.

Well I'm not for paying more tax. I pay higher tax rate as it is, and fund my own healthcare.
Why should i also fund a public one on top?

However in both Germany and Sweden , as an adult you have to have insurance to cover dental costs , this will cover basics , anything else you pay out of pocket.
Other than pre war Syria I can't think of any country that offered dental coverage as part of their health service.

So people who are in pain don’t mug you on the street or rob your house or car to get the money to pay for a filling.

My goodness, what will people do when the Labour Party are in power. No one to blame for how shit everything is!

A high standard of public services is more important. At least essential public services like healthcare and dentistry. Nobody is going to do anything drastic if their bin doesn’t get emptied. But if they’re in pain or their child is sick they will get desperate and start committing crimes to get the money for treatment.

I totally agree. I honestly don't get this attitude of I'm entitled to free health care, free dentists

I had to wait 10 months for an appointment. If I used private once for her then all her care had to be private. They want to get her on the waiting list at the age of 10 so she will get them in time. I cannot get her braces abroad as they need adjusting too regularly. I would of course pay private but NHS said she qualified as she has overbite and gap. I pay private for my own teeth as there's no appointments.

Omg, you love the drama.
Do you really think people will consider mugging people so the victim can fund their healthcare, or consider getting a job/better paid job/second job and pay for it themselves?

Plus run the risk of mugging the wrong person, and having your teeth kicked out free....or prison.

Good luck 🤣🤣

It's worse when people who can afford to pay refuse then moan about it. It's only your health and teeth declining no one else's. I think the cradle to grave thing has made people think they shouldn't have to pay for any health related expenses. It's entitlement people who have trained and studied for years should surely just do it for free 🤨

Good dentists have been charging in cities for ever... in my experience, since as early as 1985, especially if you needed a hygienist as well as check ups and fillings.

Countries with universal healthcare have lower rates of crime. Particularly when it comes to healthcare such as treatment for alcoholism and substance abuse, mental health issues and emergencies.

The cost of healthcare is so high that a second minimum wage job won’t cover it, and some people for various reasons can’t work a second job.

My brother is a now retired orthodontist. He disagreed with the privatisation of dentists, which would have been mostly though out the Blair years since it was kicked off in the early 90's. So Labour also had a chance to reverse it.

Still, I bet they will when they get in next time, and of course, no politician tell lies to get elected, while elected or forever after.
None of the parties are interested in such matters.

This. Exactly. Advances in technology are creating a demand for expensive treatments and everyone, net earner or net receivers alike entitled to this at point of entry. And it’s going to get far worse as people currently in their 50s edge into retirement.

There will be an absolute flip in demographics from when the welfare state was set up with a swelling of the elderly population in relation to the younger generations. Everything functioned great when the baby boomers were working because their sheer numbers assured they were putting a lot in the pot when there weren’t so many retired people. Life expectancy was far lower. But they’re pretty much all retired now. My generation is next and the youngsters are going to have a massive headache to fund it all.

This isn’t just happening in the uk. It’s across the board in Europe and labour aren’t going to be able to sort it out.

I utterly understand that not everyone can pay for private dentistry. In one of the areas I worked the average household income is now £23,300.

I also know that after decades of underinvestment we , as a country , cannot afford to provide what no other developed country does , a national dental service that provides all care necessary for all.

We need to prioritise what we can to get people out of pain , ie core service exam, fillings , extractions, plastic dentures , possibly front teeth root treatment and much more limited braces for children.

It may not be the dental care you would choose , if you can finance it you can have a crown, Bridge, root treatment on a back tooth, implant , flexi denture , brace for your child , but privately.

However using existing funding to provide an affordable core service for all , which will get people out of pain , is surely the best use of resources rather than pretending we can provide a NHS dental service that will provide all care necessary?

Any money left should provide dental services for those in care homes , those with special needs, those who need home visits as the community service which used to provide these services is stretched beyond bounds trying to pick up the slack from general dental services .

But it requires political honesty and courage. No government Labour, Conservative or any other is going to say we can no longer fully provide this vital NHS service in its present form.

You have to accept now that there is no free NHS dentistry and make alternative arrangements, parents should advise their children once they start working they prioritise their teeth as a monthly expenditure such as Denplan or another scheme, it’s not that expensive particularly when young and with healthy teeth, older people unfortunately will have to do the same, dentistry will now have to factor into a household bill like utilities, there really is no way around it now.

Dentistry is terrible in Wales too though, and it's not run by Tories here. There's no dental practices accepting new patients where I live - I'm traveling 2 hours for a dentist and the only reason I can get in with them (albeit with a very long wait) is because they've got a terrible reputation! DD is on their waiting list but has never seen them (she's two years old). Once I'm back to work after mat leave (with my second child, I didn't take two years!) we're going to try and get private care, at least for the children.

You could plan ahead

I agree with this. Plan to vote out the Tories at the next election.

If as a country we can't afford to offer NHS dentistry, then the Conservative government need to be upfront and say so....
This is privatisation by the back door. Tell us we all need insurance because as a government you are not prioritising healthy teeth.

Oh wait...vote winning stance....not!

It’s not just the lack of NHS dentists which is bad enough and a disgrace the government need to own up to if indeed NHS dentistry is no longer provided but the lack of private too. Do people not realise in some areas there are neither. And actually given the current climate who can afford private for an entire family?

So what are the government doing about both? Nothing is what they’re doing and that just isn’t good enough.

@Mummyoflittledragon so carry on voting the tories in ? In a nutshell..

@Lolaandbehold well exactly. Conservatives have been in power the majority of the time since 1945 so they have pretty much moulded the country in the way they want.
They are responsible for most of the mess the UK is in.

Last time I had an NHS dentist we had a Conservative government, it was around 1996, I moved and never found one again. So my first 14 years without an NHS dentist were under Labour.

It is not brexit - the NHS contracts are not viable foe.dentists to operate- that is the government.

But your private health care isn't all paid for by you - the workers are all trained at our expense.

Also it's a ridiculous argument - we all pay for things we don't directly use. It's called civilisation.