What do you do for dentistry?

[Rolson77]

Just received a letter to say that my dentist is going private. There is not one NHS dentist taking on new patients in the whole city. I work full time but am on universal credit and my son and I haven't been to the dentist for a very long time. Even when we had an NHS dentist they weren't able to offer an appointment as all their NHS dentists left. I can't afford any treatments under denplan. A filling alone is £120+. So wonder what the point would be in even going on denplan. So, is that it? We just don't go to the dentist? I have considered travelling further afield, but just feel like it'll be expensive and a nightmare. The nearest dentist to me taking NHS patients is in London, and the train there would cost at least £80/90 for me and my son.

Feeling deflated. What does everyone do for dentistry?

I've been on the practice plan of a private dentist for about a decade - because, like you, NHS provision just melted away. It's about £14 a month each for me and DH, then they register the kids for free NHS treatment because we are private. If the £10-15 a month isn't manageable then I think you're kind of screwed. It's an absolute shit show out there.

Bupa will take your son on. Travel if you have to

I'm now with an NHS dentist after 8 months on the waiting list of every practise I could find within 20 miles. They are absolutely rubbish too. Refuse to complete all the treatments covered in one band within the time frame so I'm forced to pay repeated charges, and so concerned with upselling me private treatments that I genuinely mistrust their advice. However, I feel powerless as I need them a lot more than they do me.
It's a shocking state of affairs OP, that will likely have serious health repercussions in the future, with people needing to access far more costly treatments due to inability to access them at the early cheaper stages.
In a pinch, you can get a referral for emergency work via 111. It's about £25 for whatever you need to resolve the immediate problem. I had an extraction and antibiotic through this service. But I do feel with proper care the tooth might have been saved.

I feel you OP, I have been in this exact boat and literally did just go without dental care for several years.

(DS is registered with an NHS special needs dental clinic and we are very fortunate to have such a service available to him).

Once I could afford it I registered at a private practice and have had to spend over two thousand pounds with them in the last couple of years. I am sure I could have avoided some of that if I had been able to get NHS dental care during those lapsed years.

I travel 45 mins to get to my NHS dentist, basically haven't been able to get a local one since moving. If this one went private, I'd probably look at a dental plan with a private firm, unhappily!

Our dentist dropped all of its NHS clients just after Covid - I was lucky & heard about a dentist in our county taking on new NHS patients so called them & got on their books. However, it's a good 45-50 minutes drive away from where we live, so we go as family, all with back-to-back appointments & make a day of it.
Friends who weren't so quick off the mark have either had to go private or just stopped going to the dentist. That seems to be the only option now.

I do too. My nhs dentist is 1 hour drive and 15 minutes walk
My work used to wonder where I'd actually gone when I went for a dentist appointment

I agree. I'm lucky to still have an NHS dentist but the scope of their services has drastically reduced post-pandemic and considering I still have to pay for check ups, emergency appointments and hygienist is only available privately, I am really thinking about going private as the costs are very similar or lower for what you get! Think about this OP, actually work out NHS fees vs private and what you and your DS can get. Unfortunately I think it really is false economy a lot of the time to stay on the NHS, and certainly to travel far away for it or not to have any check ups at all. You'll end up paying a lot more overall this way.

Sorry, it's a total shitshow everywhere!

More of us need to factor dental costs in our living costs. I know we ‘shouldn’t have to’ but this is the reality. A colleague of mine needs a filling and has whinged about it for weeks as she cannot get a NHS dentist and says she cannot afford private. Funny how she can afford 4K on an all inc Turkey holiday in June. (tbf I did suggest she goes to a dentist there, probably cheaper).

I pay privately as and when I need treatment.

I think NHS dentists find it increasingly difficult to make a decent living.

Pay through the nose like everyone else

A couple of suggestions:

University medical centres that have a dentist on site sometimes have walk-in clinics for NHS patients, without having to be connected to the university.

Some areas have a special needs dentistry service based in hospitals or NHS clinics that take neurodivergent patients, patients with learning disability/developmental issues, or patients with PTSD/past trauma, as well as people with physical disabilities that make dentistry challenging, if any of that applies to either you or your son, OP.

If you do scrape the money together for a private check up but need a dental extraction, asking to be referred to a hospital clinic for the procedure itself means it will be free of charge (but you may wait a long time). I daresay provision is different in different areas though.

It's a disgrace what's been allowed to happen to NHS dentistry, and when you consider the relationship between oral health and wider physical health it's a false economy too.

I just go private. I am not rich by any stretch but I just have to pay for private dentistry and make sure I've enough money aside for it. I didn't mind so much because I've had bad experiences with the NHS as a child, and I don't like pain, and It's worth it for that reason alone.

I just moved house and all the local ones are not taking on patients so traveling back to my old one. So 3h round trip on a crutch with a toddler. Asked the dentist why they have places. They are near Healthrow in a small clump of shops with 3 nhs dentist in the area. Whereas mine new locals are all on a busy long high street.

I pay privately too.

I was taken off my usual NHS dentist list as I hadn't been for a few years and the nearest dentist was private. I live in a different town now so it's a bit out of the way but they have you over a barrel don't they!

I pay "Practice Plan" monthly; initially it was about £15/month but my teeth & gums were so bad I pay a bit more to have more hygienist sessions - every 3 months instead of every 6. £5/month extra to cover a £39 hygiene fee is definitely worth it.
The payment covers 2 check-ups and hygiene sessions, plus the additional hygiene sessions, and I get 10-15% off any private work.

It's a bit all over the place here, I am an NHS patient but we have to pay privately for my husband and the kids at the same practice. We recently had to pay £3000 for my husband to have dental surgery under sedation as he had an extra 2 wisdom teeth deep that needed sorting as they were growing sideways towards his healthy teeth, so expensive! We keep meaning to put him on a monthly plan to include check ups etc but haven't sorted it yet.

If people just brush their teeth and gums regularly and lay off the sweets, chocolates, fizzy drinks and other such crap, then there really wouldn’t be a dentist shortage in the first place. You really don’t need to go see a dentist very often if you practice good oral hygiene. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Everyone needs to factor in dentistry into their monthly bills now, same as any utility or phone bill unfortunately, there is no way around it. I would advise any 18 year olds that this is the first thing they do when entering the working world is to start Denplan or similar.

I travel to a different town for my dentist NHS found them by chance.
I sat down and rang every dentist in my own town and the next and so on.
But i did find one.
Have you tried stowmarket in suffolk and ipswich just ring them all. I know a few up that way have a waiting list might as well as get on one but keep looking as well.
I think one had spaces for nhs the other week dont know about now.

I have no advice to give, although I can see why you'd think it appears to be a money-making process. It's really not, though. NHS healthcare is free to the point of service because every taxpayer pays into it. You get a checkup and pay what, £60? Then you get treatment, if necessary. If it's an NHS dentist, you pay a capped amount, and then the rest is subsidised by the taxpayer, so you never see the cost of the treatment the taxpayer is footing. I know going private is expensive, but it is what it is. Nothing is free and if you don't pay for it, someone else will. And frankly, we have far too many people, but wishing death on them as someone said upthread is not the answer.

Same here. I do have dental cover via work if needed as well.

If I don't have the work cover and couldn't get NHS I would go private for any issues and save up for a check up every 2-3 years instead of the every 6 months I currently do.

You’ll have to pay private like everyone else does. That’s the way it is. There’s lots of people in your predicament. Get your teeth sorted this time around - borrow money from a friend or family member if you have to - and just practice good oral hygiene from then on. Watch a youtube tutorial on how to floss and brush. There’s tons of them out there. Think about what you could do with the £80-90 you save from not having to go to London to visit the dentist. Eighty percent of dental problems are preventable. That’s the truth of it.

The WI are campaigning about it:

www.thewi.org.uk/campaigns/news-and-events/the-resolution-selection-results-are-in

There are some horrific stories.

It's ridiculous isn't it.
I was registered at my parents house with an NHS dentist, then they went private and when my husband got a bill for over £1000 for some treatment we actually realised it would be cheaper to fly to his home country and have it done there!
We were visiting his family later that year anyway and now get checkups/cleanings/treatment done there as long as its not urgent. Has saved us so much money but the timing fluctuates between 6 months to over 2 years.
My husband did have to have a wisdom tooth pulled in the UK as couldn't wait for our next trip but our local dentist were great and did that without us actually being a patient there. It wasn't a super expensive treatment though and obviously we're budgeted for private treatment for dentistry just at a significantly lower cost as its in a cheaper country.
I tried to get on every NHS wait list when I was pregnant and then again when my daughter was born but still nearly 3 years later haven't got a space and that was with quite a wide net.