What if you can't afford private dental care?

[OneHornedFlyingPurplePeopleEater]

I finally managed to find a local NHS dentist earlier this year for myself and my family. We'd lived here 3 years and had been calling around the local dentists every few months but none were taking NHS patients.

We've had the initial appointment a few months ago, but now they have told us there is no NHS dentist anymore.

I have what feels like an infection but can't afford private. What am I supposed to do??

Mumsnet may tell me that everyone earns £100k+ and just pay. But what if you can't?

At what point do we all demand a reduction in NI because we simply cannot access the "NHS" care we all pay for?

At what point do we accept that we don't pay enough in taxes to pay for the care we expect and vote in a government that will charge us more (proportional to income) and invest in services everyone can use.

But "they know what a woman is" so apparently most of MN intend to vote for them
🙄🙄🙄

We can’t get an NHS dentist for our 6yo. We fork out for a £25 private checkup twice a year. We can afford that as long as he doesn’t actually need any work done. We might be able to stretch to a filling if necessary, but if he needs any major work or braces etc we’ll have to go back to the NHS.

We did try to get an NHS dentist but as you say, there are none available. We even tried looking up to 100 miles from home, because the petrol would still be cheaper than private dentistry. But they told us off and said their services were for local people not for people who live 100 miles away. I said “but you’re the closest NHS dentist with spaces! If I could get a dentist closer to home don’t you think I would?!”

My private dentist has started charging in advance now, due to a spate of people booking appointments then afterwards saying sorry but I can’t pay. Decent people who wouldn’t usually do this but they’re in pain and desperate.

Are you sure you can't afford private? My private dental care used to cost £25 a month but they would treat all the children for free under that plan. Look again at private dental health care. The onus with them is very much on prevention so it might cost a bit to get your teeth up to scratch but after that it's just check ups.

How much did the private dentist want to treat your infection?

honestly - look at your outgoings and make amendments somehow. I see dental care as more important than TV license etc etc. I would rather give up live TV and TV license and have the cheapest SIM only old mobile handset, and shop in charity shops or even go to a foodbank for a few weeks than allow my teeth to go to ruin because I can't afford dental care. I'd probably take out a loan for it. I realise this is not an ideal situation but teeth are way more important than other outgoings and I would cut whatever I can to afford it somehow. I'm not saying people aren't living on the edge anyway but you have to find a way for this.

ring 111

@andtheworldrollson Apologies I haven't read the full thread but I notice you mention mental health support. Do you mean we are going to have to pay privately for that too? My dh is under the local Community mental health team and we couldn't afford to pay for the amount of interaction he has from them.

I’m 59. When my dc were little 90’s/00 there was no problem finding dentists. Including emergency care where you would visit an on call dentist.

@Reality25 socialism!😂😂😂
you need a ‘Reality’ check.

It’s becoming impossible to access MH support. Unless you’re actually in crisis they just tell you to go away. Waiting lists for diagnosis with any kind of mental condition (including ADHD and autism) are approaching 3-5 years. Waiting lists for counselling are several months, and they make it difficult to access by insisting that you must try CBT first, and only if it fails to work can you request counselling. GPs hand out medication for anxiety and depression like sweeties, but won’t refer people for therapy unless they’ve tried the pills for some time and they aren’t working. Surely non-medication approaches should be the first line of support! But it’s all about money of course, because it’s cheaper to dish out the pills than to actually help people.

We had to get a credit card and go private when DH needed a tooth pulled. He'd been living on codeine and whisky.

Where we are you can't even get an emergency appointment anymore so 111 was useless. DH phoned every morning for weeks until he gave up.

Our NHS dentist wrote to us the other day saying ‘Sorry, as from the end of the month we’re not NHS any more. Sign up to our monthly plan instead for £25pp per month’.

So no more dental check ups in this family, unfortunately.

There absolutely should be NHS cover but private isn’t that expensive so it is accessible to moderate earners. You certainly don’t need to be rich.

I use Denplan, £18ish per month and so far haven’t had any additional costs. I don’t think that’s too bad really.

Obviously it would be prohibitive to those on lowest incomes. But I’m middle income, definitely not high!

We found an NHS one by writing round in last location but on moving here absolutely nothing - and the authorises would insist there was one and we'd try and no.

We did local one -denplan - which has so far covered everything for DH and I - and they tool kids on NHS.

Since covid dentist in other parts of the UK our family members were with have nearly all gone private and now most pay a monthly fee- Dad who had terrible teeth thanks to side affect of medication found no one would take him at all - and he was eventually referred to dental hospital for treatment but was left in pain for months prior.

I'm not sure this is the most up-to-date advice, as I was told that decay in young children can also be as a result of parental bacteria i.e. if you had bad teeth as a kid, then your children will likely also have bad teeth because you pass along those harmful bacteria when you kiss them.

OP, if you have kids it's worth seeing if a local private dentist has some NHS capacity. I see a dentist privately (using Denplan) and that has meant both of my children have been able to register with the surgery as NHS patients - I don't know how it works, but that's the situation.

For the PPs saying 111 will arrange an emergency appointment - that is NOT a given (I work for them). You still have to phone around local dentists first, then if all else fails you'll be offered a phone appointment with a dental triage nurse.

Unsurprisingly, dental triage is phenomenally busy at the moment and there simply aren't enough appointments to go around.

Also, we can't get patients onto an NHS dentist's books. People seem to be under the impression we can!

Yes, the ending of NHS contracts right now seems a spectacularly bad idea. Loads were culled in the 00s; I moved dentists then fortunately finding another NHS practice. It's no longer accepting new NHS patients though.

111 should be able to help, but the sheer unavailability may mean you have to travel a considerable distance which can be hell (unless you live in a city, where there's fractionally better availability and better transport links)

We’re lucky in that where we live one of local hospitals is a major dental hospital and runs a dental a and e. Perhaps theres one local to you?

With an infection I’d definitely contact the gp and ask for antibiotics. Or 111.

The two tier system in dentistry is ridiculous. I feel that full dental care should be on the nhs.

Luckily our children still have an nhs dentist but nothing for us adults. Our dentist isn’t taking on new nhs and anyone who wasn’t entitled to full free nhs got bumped off to private basically.

In going with a wait till they are all fucked and they get fake teeth probably cheaper over all 😅 so sad isn’t it though. Doctors free a&e free. But teeth and eye no you pay.

So many things can be picked up in the mouth and eyes about other health issues too but if you can’t afford the treatment there is no point in paying your £60-£80 for even the check up.

Yes @OneHornedFlyingPurplePeopleEater - you wait for the pain to get unbearable, ring 111 and go to the emergency dentist who pulls the tooth out- this is how 99% of the adults I know deal with dentistry now 🤷‍♀️.

I can’t help with the dentist OP but if you feel like your getting or have an infection use corsodyl mouthwash (however you spell it) every hour through out the day for 3 minutes a time.

im pregnant and had a tooth infection so couldn’t have meds and they advised me to do this and it worked so well. Might help in the mean time x

Maybe this changes from area to area- round here if you call 111 with pain and aren’t registered with a dentist then they give you an emergency appointment (in one of about 4 surrounding towns).

Whilst I do think that children under 11 should have access to free dental care I don't think we can continue with all healthcare being free at the point of use. The main reason children now go to hospital is to have teeth removed. Something that is entirely preventable if you brush your teeth and don't eat loads of sugar and drink sugary drinks. Mouth/teeth health is something parents can teach their children. But here we are, Labour saying teachers will be brushing teeth with children. THIS is a disgrace and I expect we will see the freed creep of state intervention because parents can't be bothered.

That said, my dentist told me recently that there is a cheap and very effective coating product that can be applied to children's teeth to protect them. This should be rolled out via dentists visiting schools. This should include oral health for children NOT delivered by teachers who have enough to do but by local healthcare professionals funded by the NHS.

Because wages are high enough in the country to pay for dental/medical care aren’t they?🙄