Confused by my NHS Dentist - can anyone advise ?

[HullaBalloo]

After not having a dentist for over 7 years, we were recently allocated to a newly set up local NHS dentist. We went for our first appointment thinking that they would find lots wrong after having no dental care for so long, but all they did for us { me, dh and ds } was count our teeth and tell us to come back in a years time !!I was sure they would at the very least say we needed a scale and polish, and am now confused as to whether there are different levels of NHS service - my old dentist that we had to leave when we moved town would have had us in the hygenist's chair in a flash !Also, my ds { age 12} needs a brace and they were very reluctant to offer any help or advice and said they can only refer us to the dental dept at the local hospital and that there was no guarentee he would be treated and we may have to go privately.
How do we find a good private orthodontist ?

Anyone with any advice out there tonight ?

I don't think NHS dentist provide the care they used to. I finally got one and they didn't want to see use again for 18 months,although if we had any problems go back.
Word of mouth for a private orthodontist will propably be better. You could try google for private ones in you area.

I am not sure

Our dentist announced they had exciting news that they had gone private!!!!!!!!!!!

Not exciting news to us though but DS {11 years} will still be NHS

He is waiting for a brace we have to wait for all baby teeth to come out.

I am having private orthodontic treatment and have got 2 braces in atm

I was told by my dentist the name of a good orthodontist

The new nhs system doesn't provide for orthodontics unless the child has a severe malocclusion (it used to be avalible for anyone under 16). An nhs dentist now gets paid the same for a check up as he does for a check up and scaling, (used to be the case that each item of treatment had it's own fee)thus some are a little unscrupulous about the treatment they provide. Or it may be that you are all very good at caring for yourteeth and require no treament.

Thanks all for the advice - sounds like the treatment we got is par for the course. It's a big step forward, I suppose, that we now do actually have a dentist. Will do a bit more research into finding a private orthodontist.

covenoveneer, so will dentist's not even refer then, unless it's severe? How severe is severe? Feel free to use dental terminology!

Is this because of the new contract? So what happens to those who may need orthontic work, but aren't severe enough?

Not picking, just interested.

We were told that braces now have to be paid for. My dentist is private but I assume the children are still treated under NHS.