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?

You do realise a low wage in Nordic countries is 3x higher than here? And they have basic income for low earners?

You cannot compare the two.

Surely your workplace pay for your broadband so you can work from home, if not I would be asking why.

They're not obligated to as far as I'm aware, I do get the £26/MTH working from home allowance or whatever it's called.

Covering employees broadband is certainly not budgeted for, and it's a small charity. Most importantly though they've been incredibly supportive and flexible with the multiple appointments and meetings we've had to do with DS, sometimes three a week.

I work for NHS111 and the number of dental calls we take are phenomenal.

No, we can't register you with a dentist, nor can we find you an emergency dentist who doesn't charge. We can get a dental triage nurse to call you back and find you an appointment somewhere.

We're all in the same boat. It's awful.

This is the opposite of socialism though 🤔😕

How much is it? The private dental care in your town? I pay £22 a month and that includes 2 x dental checks and 2 x hyienist visits per year for myself and, crucially, any dependant children.

When my kids reached 18 they went on a young peoples plan for 18-25 year olds for £15 a month.

We couldn't get a local nhs dentist when we moved. I've now got a private and luckily they treat dc as nhs (until 18). I pay £14 a month for denplan.it's awful for people who cannot afford.

The system is so poor but many dentists will try very hard to cling onto some NHS care. The easiest is children and exempt adults. They are being shafted by the NHS and it can only even break even if they have a system like this. Which likely is borderline compliant with their contract. Shame on the governments who’ve let this happen.

NHS dentists usually have a few emergency appointments for cases like this but if you have an infection the likelihood is they will need you to take a course of antibiotics before any actual dental treatment - your doctor or 111 will help initially

🙄

Oh that will really work!!!

This isn't good, but you just need to bite the bullet and go private. One decent check up a year is better than no check up in 4 years.