Help.. My NHS dentist has gone private.. Now what??

[herladyship]

Have been with a fab dental practice for about 5 years..

They have just written to me to say they are going private and that the cost of their new plan is about £60 a month for a family of four, and that price doesn't cover everything by any means

I thought the NHS website had a 'find a dentist' type facility, but now I can't find it on there!

Any advice [hopeful emoticon], or do I have to ring every dentist in the yellow pages looking for one with spaces??

Yes and a world of difference between what the NHS gives you and a tenner for a minutes work.
And the fact that some dentists remain on the NHS still means it's do-able.

I have to say herladyship £60 a month sound ver steep! My dentist (private) recommended I join their private plan and I pay £21 per month for me (they treat children free) and my teeth are in the middle category of about 5 - so they are far from great condition! Dh has fantastic teeth and they told him not to bother as he just doesn't need to go that often. I have my teeth cleaned twice per year, often need xrays for toothache and eventually will need at least 2 more crowns, and the current crowns I have replacing!

Furthermore the difference in cost between NHS treatment and private for a new patient appointment and x-ray was £5!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would look for a different practice but don't rule out private altogether.

I am in Surrey btw so not a "cheap" area by any means!

But one dentist gets paid a different amount to another dentist under the nhs system, and do-able is also dependant on what your ooverheads (both personal and proffesional) are.

find a dentist
If you can't, get on to the Patient Advice and Liaison Service

I would double check with them, our dentist went private and the price of common treatments barely changed. They also treat children for free.

We are going back woods in this country, I worked for 50 years and paid my tax and national insurance, I am retired on a pension, my Dentist went private last year, had to go 2 months ago to have a filling and to repair a bit of one of my teeth broke of to have that done cost me £360 which I had to pay on my credit card,
I cannot afford to go to the Dentist again, and a lot of people I have spoke to said they are the same, haven’t got the money, so they will be thousands of people going around with rotten teeth, it’s disgusting,

I understand your frustration about NHS dentists not going private and it shouldn’t happen but I also understand what Veneer says too. Not only is running any business more expensive than you think but training to be a dentist is very expensive - almost £50K for tuition alone - and the NHS don’t pay enough to cover the costs of the work they do. My own NHS dentist is going “members only” from December so now I have to decide what to do. 100% children should be encouraged to visit a dentist regularly. Perhaps that’s the way to go - making children’s Dentistry free. If you get good education and practice from your dentist up to the age of 18 it should be straightforward to keep up to them after that