Harassed by dentist?

[Anotherdayanotherusername]

I've long acknowledged I have the sort of teeth that make lots of plaque/tartar. A dentist once told me it's not my fault, it's just the way some people are. I tried to manage it by regular hygienist visits and following their advice. I figured my teeth were OK as dentist never seemed concerned and my gums never bled which I know is a sign of gum disease.

Then two years ago I started seeing a different dentist at the practice and suddenly I have the worst teeth in the world! She said I had gum disease, bone loss and she was "very concerned". I was told I needed expensive root planing treatment or surgery but no point doing yet as gum disease needed to be bought under control first so needed close monitoring. Mortified, I stepped up my dental routine, bought a water flosser but it was never good enough.

I then couldn't see the dentist for 9 months but did see the hygienist a couple of times in that period who seemed happy with what I was doing.

Had an appointment with the dentist a few weeks ago which I was dreading, expecting the usual telling off. To my surprise she seemed happy with my teeth, didn't even mention gum disease and sent me on my way saying "see you in 6 months". However, I later received a call from the surgery saying the dentist needed me to come back "to check something". As I needed to take time off work, it's some distance and they couldn't do the same time as my next hygienist appointment, I refused to make an appointment unless they told me why. Dentist phoned back to say it was because she forgot to check my gum disease and although my gums looked fine she wanted to double check. I said I was happy to wait until my next check up but she said she wasn't.

Since then the surgery keep calling me to schedule the appointment and I'm either fobbing them off or not answering as it's really inconvenient!

AIBU? Is this dentist being overdramatic or scared of getting sued perhaps??

@Lollygaggle so why isn’t gum disease treated as part of the nhs treatment? Why do we have to pay more for it?

why doesn’t the dentist do the full point check as part of the checkup and why doesn’t they treat the issue as part of the NHS treatment?

if they are held to account for it why don’t they treat it? Why do they force us to go private?

@Lollygaggle are you in the Uk? I don’t know of anyone suing their dentist

I’ll admit I do love my dentist and hygienist but do feel bad when I’m asked do I use the inbetween brushes every day

On the NHS you will get a gum check it is called a BPE . That tells the dentist if you have gum disease. If you get a score of 3 or 4 then you should get initial treatment on the NHS which is based on getting you to clean more effectively. This will be with a dentist as the treatment loses the practice money and if a hygienist did it , it would lose the practice even more money.

Just having plaque or tartar is not gum disease and as NHS is not set up for prevention then you would have to pay for cleaning.

Where it gets difficult is if you do not clean effectively then treatment stops because there is no point in continuing to scale when tartar will reform after 24 hours if you don’t clean effectively. There is no point seeing a specialist or having more advanced treatment unless patient is cleaning effectively .

The 6 point measurement takes alot of time to do and is not done routinely , only after BPE 3 or 4 diagnosed and after initial treatment .

where it gets even more difficult is if you need specialist periodontal treatment because in many areas it is either not available or waiting lists are years long so , effectively, if you want to save your teeth you will have to see a specialist privately.

So the short answer is if you have gum disease initial therapy aimed at getting you to tackle the factors in gum disease eg smoking , diabetes and effective cleaning is available on the NHS.

In theory advanced treatment is available but in practice the NHS either does not fund it or waiting lists are years long so you would have lost teeth by then anyway, so have to go private.

preventive work, like routine scaling where there is no gum disease , is not provided on the NHS and has to be paid for privately.

You are more likely to be sued , as a dentist, in the U.K. than anywhere else in the world. It started, really , with no win, no fee and is increasing year on year. The rate has doubled in the last ten years https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/115166/pdf/

Suspicious. I once went to a dentist and was horrified to be told I needed six fillings. My precedents had retired. I went for a second opinion; no fillings needed! That was 15 years ago and I’ve never needed the fillings.

The 6 point measurement takes alot of time to do and is not done routinely , only after BPE 3 or 4 diagnosed and after initial treatment.

I've been told the return visit will only take 5 minutes and she'll squeeze me in so I very much doubt she'll be doing a 6 point check. If she did BPE at the original appointment, which I'm sure she did as I remember her calling out numbers, then surely she would've known there and then if a more detailed check was needed. She just all was fine and sent me on my way. Pretty sure I've never had a 6 point check done previously either. I'm guessing she looked back at my notes and remembered what she'd told me previously so is getting me back for the sell.

So if a GP is worried something is wrong people panic but a Dentist and people cry ''they are trying to sell me something''

Just to put in my two penn’orth: a long way down the comments someone more or less said gum disease isn’t a big deal. I beg to differ. I inherited it from my mum. I didn’t take it seriously. I’m now having regular expensive treatment. I thought the worst risk was of losing my teeth. I suspected I was being pressured by my dentist. The last straw came when I told the hygienist that I had heart disease (also thanks to Mum). She said well, the bacteria from gum disease can infect your heart. I kept a straight face, went home and looked it up. And guess what? I was wrong and she was RIGHT. Please listen to the professionals.

I know this is an an old thread but thought I'd update.

I never did go back for the "quick 5 minute recheck". I did go to the hygienist who seemed happy. Yesterday was my next 6 month check with the dentist & I was worried I was in for another telling off. As it happened, she was absent so I saw a different dentist who was very happy with my teeth and congratulated me on my "excellent cleaning". I decided to ask about the gum disease and she said "you don't have gum disease" and that if I ever did have it the cleaning had clearly paid off. I said I thought it was why I had a lot of bone loss. She said I had very minor bone loss, which she pointed to on the xrays she had taken, consistent with my age (50s). I asked if the bone could've regrown and she said it was highly unlikely. She looked back at all my xrays from the last 3 years and said there was no significant change.

I'm confused - was the first dentist trying to do work that wasn't needed or was the second dentist incompetent? I hope it's the former!