Private dentist booked in emergency at my app time

[Crumpetcrunchiness]

I’m conscious I may well get my arse handed to me but here goes.

I’ve booked a private dentist appointment to get deep cleaning/fix tooth, not cheap but had to as one has broken and the soonest NHS appointment was in six weeks at the same practice. I’m in a fortunate position that I can afford it.

I’m sat waiting for my app and someone has just gone in at my time, emergency apparently but I’m annoyed they would have likely known and why not call and tell me before I’m sat waiting here? I’ve also had to arrange childcare so will now have to rush home.

YABU for expecting a medical appointment to run exactly on time, all sorts of things come up and it isn't an exact science how long things take.

Would you not want to be able to access an emergency appointment if you needed it?

It's very annoying that they didn't let you know or at the very least apologise profusely when you arrived. Obviously emergencies happen and presumably nobody (decent) would begrudge the Dentist seeing an emergency patient but they need to fully explain it to you.
My (Private) Dentist Practice is scrupulously polite and courteous at all times ... but has kindly fitted me in as an emergency however I have overheard them say they keep a couple of 'floating' appointments available .. in fact they called me once at very short notice to see if I wanted one for some scheduled treatment.

Normally emergencies are booked into a specific emergency slot booked out each day . However even routine appointments can run late and you can't stop extracting someone's tooth because it's taking longer than expected, that then makes you run late from that point on, as it's impossible to catch up.
However recent examples of emergencies that have had to be rushed in

someone knocked a tooth completely out. There is a two hour window of opportunity to place it back in again

someone got hit in the face with a wrecking bar , needed to be assessed as may have needed to go to a and e if had facial fracture

someone had a sudden infection with signs and symptoms of sepsis , fatal if not caught early

However the tin lid was the patient who complained about his check up being delayed and kept pestering reception as to how long he would have to wait. In context a patient had had a heart attack in another waiting room , I was administering BLS , the paramedics arrived and went past this patient on the way to the waiting room , the reception had explained to all why there was a delay . I had to continue to help stabilise patient with paramedics .

I did do the check up and apologised for delay. The patient with the heart attack survived.

I pay monthly for my private dentist. Sometimes, when I have a scheduled appointment, I have to wait. Equally, when I’ve had an emergency appointment, others will have had to wait.

Since there is no NHS dentistry anywhere near here, there’s no choice but to go private and really, now it’s NHS service that you’re paying for.

You are most definitely not being unreasonable. Whatever 'emergency' it was (and let's face it it would have only been an abcess or similar) does not mean they jump the queue. We pay enough for private dental care the least they can do is see you on time.

Looking at what @Lollygaggle has written above, it could have been far more serious than an abscess - however the receptionist is hardly going to divulge all the information to anyone in the waiting room.

Unfortunately, emergencies and the unexpected happen and there can be any number of reasons appointments don't run to schedule. I've been that patient delaying everyone else and believe me I'd far rather have been sitting in the waiting room bemoaning my late running appointment.

'someone got hit in the face with a wrecking bar , needed to be assessed as may have needed to go to a and e if had facial fracture someone had a sudden infection with signs and symptoms of sepsis , fatal if not caught early'

With respect getting hit in the face with a wrecking bar is surely an A&E visit and you don't die of sepsis if you wait 20mins for the previous patient's appointment to be over.

It would seem like they could have called you to warn you.

It's very simple.

You're paying for a service.

Absent any fiddles with the law which affect specific services provided by the state, or specific fiddles for a particular industry, then you are covered by Consumer Rights.

Same as students paying for a degree course.

So what's sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander, and as a consumer you are quite entitled to use consumer law in whatever way it fits, if you so choose.

What does your contract say about appointment times ? And does it sound a fair clause ?

You need to start by quantifying your loss ...

The average wait for an and e is up to eight hours for a non life threatening injury. Last time I was in a gp with a severed finger tip was next to me. They had four hours to get the finger tip reattached. That time came and went as a serious road traffic accident was in.

If wrecking bar had signs of facial fracture, or had been unconscious then I can ring ahead and send them in with a letter so bypassing some of the triage and getting them appropriate care quicker, very important in the case of concussion. As it was I carried out repairs to his lips , teeth and then sent him to an and e . It took an hour and a half necessitating cancelling patients who were in waiting room. They were understanding as they had seen him coming in holding his face together in his hands dripping blood.

Sepsis every minute counts and is a cause of a very quick death. Everyone should be aware of symptoms https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/blood-and-lymph/sepsis
there is a massive education content in the NHS about sepsis

Just in case people are not aware of symptoms of sepsis https://smiletogether.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Sepsis-Dentist-Campaign.pdf

It's very annoying that they didn't let you know or at the very least apologise profusely when you arrived. Obviously emergencies happen and presumably nobody (decent) would begrudge the Dentist seeing an emergency patient but they need to fully explain it to you.

This. I hate the lack of communication. The receptionist at my dentist got the arse with me when I refused to wait any longer after I'd been sitting there for an hour and had to keep asking how much longer it would be. When I told her I'd had enough and was leaving she said 'it'll be 5 minutes, surely you can wait 5 more minutes'. I pointed out it was 5 minutes plus my appointment time and she wasn't impressed.

They have to fit in emergency patients. I doubt it's in your appointment time usually gaps are left in schedules for emergencies they are probably running late (as usual)

Oh yes every second counts with sepsis however the patient would have seen their gp if they felt ill not a dentist for a quick check up.

Receptionists and dentists just need to sort their time management out and when we're paying a fortune we expect to be seen on time. Our dentist's appointments start at 10am and I guarantee it'll be 10.15 before first person seen. No wrecking bars or cardiac arrests in sight.

Regardless of the wait the first port of call for getting smashed in the face with anything is A&E.

How long would you be happy to wait for if you had an emergency? a week, month? or as soon as they can fit you in? We all know the answer and guess what, when you have that head splitting tooth ache and you get an emergency appointment... you have taken someone else slot and they will have to wait half an hour. Oh what a shame!

Get over it

Diddums. Emergencies happen. May even happen to you one day and you end up doing the same to someone else or indeed they could have been the appointment before you and the dentist is running late

Does rather raise the question what is the point of paying for private service, just to get NHS treatment ?

I’d be angry as generally most emergency appointments aren’t that much of an emergency and as a PP says if you get hit in the face then you go to A&E first. When I had my adult front tooth knocked out as a child I went to A&E first and luckily the dental hospital next door saw me the same day or the next day.

I agree with @Janiie re receptionists and dentists and a lack of time management. Once when I went for an appointment to the dentists I was told on arrival that the receptionist had emailed or left me a voicemail message on the day or the day before to say the dentist was off with covid. If it were me i’d have emailed, texted and left a voicemail message as you can’t guarantee all will go through or be seen. In my case I was experiencing network issues and delayed voicemails with my mobile so I didn’t get the message. Plus the dentists was a good 30 minute drive away. I complained and said I needed to see someone asap and the main dentist there saw me quite quickly as I said I’d wait.

Very bad form for a dentist to say their appointments start at 10am but they actually start 15 minutes later.

@SerendipityJane - I’ve seen NHS as well as private dentists in the past and the NHS have always been on time as well as most private ones too.

Broken tooth … if it wasn’t painful I would wait for the NHS appointment. Mine is broken … went last week to get it checked, getting it fixed in 3 week. Band 2 £70

But don't you think the receptionist should have the courtesy to explain there is a delay and apologise? How long is an acceptable time to wait?

You’re nice! Having had an abscess myself once, I can tell you the pain was absolutely unbearable. I would be happy to let anyone go before me if they were in such urgent need of treatment.

Not a month no. I'd certainly expect to wait my turn in the morning's appointment list though.

Get over what? That dentists and their receptionists seem to have Mickey Mouse watches?

My introduction to my GP was her arriving out to the waiting room, getting to eye level with the women sitting beside me, and apologising to her, explaining that she had an emergency patient and could the woman wait 15 mins. It was pure coincidence I was the emergency patient and sitting beside that lady. They had said at reception come as soon as you can- so obvs weren't going to cancel patients depending on traffic etc. But I remember thinking the way she acknowledged the lady wait was so nice, especially because so often gp's are running late anyway.

What the receptionist should do if it’s an emergency is work out what it is, abscess/root canal pain etc. The latter one though painful can wait overnight so though an emergency can wait 2-3 hours if dentist not free. Abscess I have no idea. Regarding root canal you can only from recollection look get treatment and then get antibiotics and then return for it to be done properly. If it’s an emergency root canal with extreme pain etc apparently it can be done same day but not all dentists do it and the time scale is 2-3 hours so the receptionist would have to rearrange a mornings or afternoons appointments.

Most times a receptionist is not a clinician , even if they were their diagnostic skills would have to be incredible to diagnose over the phone with no x Ray, no clinical exam etc.

If you book a car in for a repair the technician knows exactly how long it will take , barring things like seized nuts etc.

Unfortunately teeth vary immensely are attached to human beings who vary immensely . A routine filling can become not routine because

a an x Ray is only an inaccurate 2d representation of a 3D object . So decay can be much more extensive and a simple filling may turn into the start of root treatment or an extraction etc

b people are different . Someone might come in for a tooth out not having eaten before , so will need glucose and time to recover before treatment can start.
Someone might not numb up well enough first time, they may need longer to numb, or a different technique or a different anaesthetic
Someone might be very,very nervous and need a lot more time to become comfortable with treatment than was forecast.

c you might spot something that needs doing whilst you are working on another tooth that didn't come up in the x Ray or examination.

d you get people in (normally of the older generation) for a check up with eg a massive swelling , who didn't come in earlier because "I didn't want to bother you and I know you're busy" .

e people book in for a problem that seems minor "a chipped tooth" and it turns out they've broken a crown off that needs longer and more complicated treatment . It takes time to get equipment out and then everything cleaned away and sterilised afterwards before the next patient.

In other words there are many reasons why a dentist runs late and cannot always be on time. As a matter of course you should be informed so you can rebook if it's not convenient to wait but it is not a deliberate thing. Surveys show keeping to time is one of the main stressors in dentistry.

Most dental surgeries work with no breaks , other than lunch , during the working day and lunch is used to keep up with paperwork, referrals , letters etc . Many colleagues and nurses complain they don't even have time to wee. It's no one's choice to run late and the dental team will be incredibly stressed as well.