to think that dental hygienists are wildly overpriced

[exse24Londoner]

saw my dentist and he recommended I see the dental hygienist to scrape the plaque off my teeth - as one side was a concern he said an hour would be best.

when I booked in I was told it would be £178!!! for one hour!!!! WTAF??????

I had to see an osteopath the other month & she charge £60 for 50 mins - that 50 mins included a consultation with a healthcare professional educated to MSc level + diagnosis & treatment who has independent accountability.

how on earth can the dental surgery think that £178 is reasonable???? btw I am pretty certain that the majority of the cost isn't going into the pocket of the dental hygienist

If your dentist has a hygienist working at the practice even though it's private the cost should generally be lower
Private ones not attached to the practice are expensive
That's the way it is though. Teeth are important at the end of the day

An hour seems like a very intensive high needs appointment. Even after 12+ yrs with no dental appointments for various reasons, I only needed a 30 minute hygienist appointment, with 20 minutes for the subsequent 6/ 12m appts.

They are often paid minimum wage.

My NHS dentist charges £80 for 30 mins but after 3 monthly appointments for 2 years and no improvement in my gum disease I started going to a private dentist.

Had 2 hour long appointments with local anaesthetic as the treatment itself was pretty horrific and my pockets have reduced from 11 to 3.

I now go to my NHS dentist for routine treatments and private for the hygienist. I will add i feel the private dentist is constantly pushing really expensive treatments such as replacing my fillings at a cost of £3k!

How odd! My dentist does the hygiene stuff himself in my normal check up appointment :/

It’s disgusting but I see it as investing in my teeth. I pay about £90 for 30 miss every 3 months. He’s excellent though and it helps keep my gums healthy.

I’ll easily spend £90 at the hairdressers round here so I guess everything is expensive.
But it does piss me off OP! YANBU.

The dentist should be descaling if clinically necessary under Band 1 treatment. The hygienist gives a good clean but it should not replace the dentist. Lots of them
do this. Daylight robbery.

Yes this. Although I would rather pay extra for them to not do the lecture.

My very expensive dentist charges £75 for a hygienist - so yours is expensive.

I suggest you go somewhere else for the clean

Had the same dentist for 10 years, no trips to the hygienist, very happy with my teeth. A new dentist takes over the practice following a retirement and everything is an upsell now. I went to the hygienist as recommended, paid the extortionate fee, and won’t be going again. The water she used was so incredibly cold it was somehow painful even though it was just a water jet. When I commented she said yes it does feel cold in winter. Oh thanks for that, lol.

90sWasAmazing

thanks so much, sorry I should have mentioned that too, I just have extremely bad teeth and am in a mw job. Dh keeps saying about prsi but he has amazing teeth so it works for him but I get told I’ve ten million things to be done and each time I go it’s over a hundred euro so I’ve given up and am living with not great teeth!

My hygienist doesn't take an hour, and costs £65, used to be £50 before covid.
Dentist check up is £50
Do they think it'll take an hour to remove plaque for you?
If I had to choose one or the other I'd choose the hygienist and only see the dentist every other time I go in. I have a lot of mouth problems.

Mine is £27 for half an hour. She numbs me up with LA top and bottom for a deep clean as I have long-standing gum disease. NHS, been with the practice about fifty years!
She does all our check ups too. Never see a dentist.

An hour is a long time for any dental professional. If the dentist did it presumably it'd cost more?

Can't you get a half hour appointment? I never remember a professional clean taking an hour.

Shop around as others locally might be cheaper. But to me not having it done for years was the worst mistake I ever made for my poor gums. So definitely do go to somewhere!

I find my hygienist better value than the dentist. Its the same price for me but the dentist lasts 5 mins, they poke and my teeth and say a number and thats itm
whereas the hygienist and her assistant spend 30 mins together. I had the very start of gum issues and with 4 monthly vits it was resolved and my teeth look nicer.

Agree. Rip off. Don't bother anymore. Cost of food etc too high

I started to notice, back in the mid noughties, that the (then) NHS dentist was pushing the (private) dental hygienist in their practice - I never needed any dental intervention & it felt like the dentist was a sales portal for the hygienist.
My DC grew up, Covid happened, and I managed to let 10 years elapse between visits 🫣. Teeth were fine, one good scale, polish and patronisation session from the hygienist, plus a pseudo science scoring scale which was utterly subjective.
They want me to go 3-4 times a year at £90+ a pop. No thanks - I think once every few years is enough for me.

Wow where you can you buy this?

I pay £118 for 20 minutes. Go twice a year but I always feel it’s a lot but then my teeth feel amazing after a visit so feel it’s worth it (I think!).

I'm 68 and until this year I had never had an appointment with a dental hygienist. My lovely dentist, whom I had been a patient of for nearly 40 years, retired in the spring. He used always to offer a scale and polish at every six-monthly check up. Now I have to make two separate appointments and pay more than twice as much as I was before!

80 quid here .I have a plan for dentist cost but doesnt cover hygeniest apparently.I went once and not again! I think its a massive rip off

Same 👆

I’ve just started using a water pic. My friend recommended itWaterpic

so far so good, although it does feel a bit too reminiscent of dentists everyday.

Just before the pandemic the hygienist at my dentist charged £46 and it’s now £104.

The kicker is that there is no set appointment duration, and reception refuse to commit to stating a time. So, I have superficial staining from drinking a lot of tea, and two teeth always get some tartar, so I am in and out in 10-12 minutes. I even started specifically noting the time that I sat down in the chair as the first time it happened I was shocked - £104 for 10-12mins is outrageous!

I'm flabbergasted by a lot of your amounts. Ours is £18 and if you need an x-ray it's an extra £3.