NHS Dentist cleaning costs

[TheRedEngine]

My dentist assures me that the £23 fee (adults) no longer includes a scale and polish and this has to be paid for separately. This apparently changed about a year ago. Anybody confirm or otherwise, please?

If it did then nobody has updated the NHS website... www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/dental-costs/understanding-nhs-dental-charges/

The line in there is if clinically needed it is included in a band 1 course of treatment.
So if it is being done as part of managing periodontal disease it's clinically necessary otherwise it's cosmetic. The operating protocols were rewritten to work under Covid measures to limit aerosols in conjunction with the British Society of Periodontology so that's probably what your dentist is referring to.
The NHS powers that be have been trying to say a scale and polish is unnecessary for some time; as without disease it's cosmetic and there are papers that support this.
Scaling is mostly by hand at the moment as the ultrasonic is an aerosol generating procedure and needs fallow time and a deep clean which we are all trying to reserve for procedures that absolutely need to be done.