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Original poster

NHS Dentists! How have these changes affected you?

31 replies

Runnerbean · 29/03/2006 08:22

My dentist has offered us Denplan where I pay £16 a month and I get 2 checkups a year plus 1 with a hygienist, 10% off treatment and I'm able to have appointments out of school hours. I was told if I didn't sign up I'd only get a checkup once every 2 years, would have to take the girls out of school for appointments and would have to ring NHS direct for emergencies!
How long before we have to pay to see the doctor!!

I suppose I'm just lucky to have a dentist at all!

OP posts:
Twiglett · 29/03/2006 08:27

but NHS guidelines say that if you don't have a checkup every 15 months they can take you off their list .. I think your dentist is just trying it on

an adult with decent teeth shouldn't really need an annual check to be fair ... and a hygienist at ours costs £38

Bozza · 29/03/2006 08:27

But that is only what you would pay anyway isn't it? Just a way of the dentist ensuring he gets it up front, I would have thought.

Surfermum · 29/03/2006 08:41

It doesn't cost me £182 for 2 check ups and a hygienist appt a year on the NHS, so when ours wrote to us Runnerbean and told us that if we wanted to stay with them we would have to sign up for Denplan. I got straight onto the NHS website, found another NHS dentist thankfully only 3 miles away. When I called in there to sign on it was a brand spanking new surgery and looks lovely.

Twiglett · 29/03/2006 08:44

NHS check-up is £6.50

NannyL · 29/03/2006 08:49

you are lucky surfer mum...

round ehre there are officially no dentists willing to accpet new NHS adult patients.... not even one within a VERY large radius at all!

As a result ive gone denplan (costs me £10 / month as i have near perfect teeth and on the lowest 'band')
My sister doesnt have a dentist on principle that she wont pay when she pays tax and NI... ( agood 'principle' until she needs something fast!)

there are more companies then denplan so you could try looking at another one... google dental insurance

Trophywife · 29/03/2006 08:50

mine have gone completly private (sp?) and have said that we can sign up for dentplan and get 2 check ups, hygienist and xrays for £9.90 a month but any work will be charged at an hourly rate depending on who you see. oh and if you dont sign up for dentplan by the 31st of march they will take you of their books.
i have managed to get us on a nhs dentish books but its almost 2 hours drive away and they dont open weekends so dh has to take a day of to takes us all there for check ups.

i knew there was a reason why i hated the dentist.......Grin

Surfermum · 29/03/2006 08:55

I know - we are lucky. When I lived in Gloucestershire there were no nhs dentists locally and it wasn't worth paying the petrol to drive to the nearest one.

mum2sam · 29/03/2006 08:58

The thing that really bugged me was when I was pregnant and so entitled to free dental care as its supposed to be part of your antenatal care. Yet no dentist take me on. And now Ive got ds I have to register as being priviate just so ds can get free nhs treatment. And it bugs me even more that dh is in the navy and so gets all his dental/medical care free yet still as to pay NI etc yet i and ds get nothing.

Original poster
Runnerbean · 29/03/2006 09:18

To be honest I do think it is a lot of money to pay! But I got the impression that this was the only way to continue getting care at this dentist. She is lovely the lady I see and my teeth aren't that great to be honest, I feel like I'm paying just for peace of mind really. I had loads of free treatment done when I was pregnant, so I don't begrudge too much.
Perhaps things will change in the future and I won't be paying forever. I might do a bit of research though as I seem to be paying more than you Nannyl and trophywife.

OP posts:
Bozza · 29/03/2006 10:52

Sorry Blush - I thought it was £16 a year not a month. Just being thick, I am afraid.

Enid · 29/03/2006 10:56

we finally found an NHS dentist with a space

when we got there teh receptionist looked very pissed off that I was pg and hissed 'shes expecting' down the phone to the dentist.

When we got in to the surgery the dentist didnt say a word to me or the dds (despite it being their first visit) apart from at the end saying our teeth were fine. I asked him a question about cleaning the dds teeth which he at least had the grace to answer.

The same surgery wrote to a friend of mine last week telling her that they were dropping her family from their books as her children were noisy and badly behaved and her dh left muddy boot marks on their carpet.

So I am going private.

crazydazy · 29/03/2006 11:12

It just makes me laugh, the whole NHS dentist carry on. I cannot get one, I have a broken tooth at the front and nobody is interested because its cosmetic and not causing me pain. Was told I could go private but it would cost me £30 for a check up!!!

foxinsocks · 29/03/2006 11:17

we have to pay for the kids and for me - if we didn't pay, we wouldn't get to see a dentist because there are none round here that take NHS patients anymore

LIZS · 29/03/2006 11:37

We've been on Denplan for about 10 years anyway -it covers checkups , 3 or 6 monthly trips to the hygienist, pretty much all non-cosmetic treatment, xrays,and emergency cover abroad. We are now moving the children onto it as the NHS contract would only cover the most basic of care - think there was even a suggestion of less frequent than annual checkups - and nothing preventative.

queenrollo · 29/03/2006 11:51

i am faced with signing up to denplan too. there is not a single dentist in my county taking on NHS pateints. i can't really afford it but my gums haven't settled down since i was pregnant and i fear if don't do something now i will lose all my teeth. that and the fact i have to sign up to get ds registered.

Trophywife · 29/03/2006 13:47

Surfermum, we're in gloucester and have to go to wotton under edge to go nhs, but as i get really bad teeth when pg (am hoping to start trying again after have fulley recovered from mc) and as its on the way down to see in-laws in dorset we dont really have a choice.

Everyone little bit of info: i was told that some will have to go back to doing nhs care as they wont have any patients, you can keep an eye on who is nhs in you aera by going to \link{http://www.nhs.uk\NHS} website and clicking on "dentist" then your aera, also its worth having a look after the 1st to see if any have change. HTH everyone out there with problems.

Enid · 29/03/2006 13:48

I went private to have a crown redone and he said that he wouldn't recommend denplan if you have good teeth normally - not worth it

melissasmummy · 29/03/2006 14:14

Enid, your friend should complain. They are not valid reasons for a dentist to drop patients. The dentist will have to have told their local health authority why they were removing them from their list & those excusses are laughable, at best. Your friend also should have signed something to say that they agree with this!

The dentist, IMO, is just finding excusses to thin the list out. How long until you would have had something similar!

Enid · 29/03/2006 14:18

i have really encouraged her to complain

but she is, understandably, really really embarrassed and just wants to drop the whole thing

I think it is utterly shocking

melissasmummy · 29/03/2006 14:30

I can understand that too.

But (and I am not nagging) dentists will keep doing this type of thing until they are held accountable for it.

I am so glad that the dentist's I worked for were rule abiding, nice people! (well, to the patients, anyway!)

batters · 29/03/2006 15:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Tinker · 29/03/2006 15:24

Did teh same as Surfermum

Jennypog · 29/03/2006 15:30

Mine wanted me to pay for Denplan. Did you know though that you have to pay monthly for this so called "insurance", you still have to pay for your treatment.

I am buggered if I am going to pay £16 a month. That is a lot of money if you work it out over the year and I only want a check up every now and again. My dentist wouldn't keep my children on the books if I didn't sign up for Denplan. I complained and he is keeping us on for a small annual fee. The children are still NHS, but I will pay privately for my treatment.

Original poster
Runnerbean · 29/03/2006 18:09

Jennypog, I too got the impression that the only way to see a dentist at all was to sign up with Denplan. There is another plan aparently, that she only told me about after I'd said I'd asked around, which involves being assesed by your dentist as to the amount of cover/premium, but with this one all your treatment is then covered and you don't pay extra.

OP posts:
LIZS · 29/03/2006 19:56

runnerbean, that sounds like the cover we've got with Denplan. In over 10 years we haven't paid for any extra although in the end dh's wisdom teeth were done under Bupa as he needed to have them done under a general.