NHS dentist for children?

[Youthiswastedontheyoung]

Hubby and I both both work but not on huge wages by any means, and not loads left once rent paid etc.
But we cannot get our daughter (4) a NHS dentist anywhere locally! She needed a little filling doing recently and we had no choice but to go privately. Needless to say it was expensive!
Is this "normal" these days?

I had to sign them up privately until a space came up. I kept bugging them (and paying privately) until they got a space.

There's been a crisis with NHS dentists for a long time. Apparently tooth decay is the number one reason for children going to hospital.

@username0489 It really is worrying, especially as our daughter has genetically weak teeth (can blame my hubby for that one!)
Private dentistry is so expensive so what on earth do families do that simply can't afford it?

You may need to travel for an NHS dentist. They are much easier to find for children than adults. Make sure when you ring that you make it clear you are trying to register a child. We managed to get our 2 registered when we moved to a new county 2 years ago, but there are no children’s places anywhere now. Dh and I haven’t been able to register. I’ve been sitting with a broken tooth for 6 months now. The closest NHS dentist I could find was in Wiltshire or London, or in the other direction in the Isles of Scilly. We are on the Devon/Cornwall border. I would go through your GP maybe and see if they could refer you to a dental hospital, otherwise look far and wide.

I don't understand how you've only come across this now at 4? But yes difficult. We had to commute a 40 mile round trip after moving for a few years and I know that's a lot shorter than others. Managed to find a dentist taking on NHS for children last year, but I'm still having to go to our old city. You have to keep calling as they'll open their books but be full quickly.

If I were you given the fact she's needed a filling at such a young age and has a genetic weakness I would look at a dental plan until you can get her an NHS one.

It's shocking though, dental care is health care.

Yes it’s a disgrace and I’m surprised it’s not a bigger political issue (or maybe I’m not 🙄) - my older son has a gold dust nhs dentist but my younger born in 2020 does not. (Not for want of trying and trying and trying!!) Both my children have congenital dental issues and I anticipate needing to spend thousands of pounds on treatment. It’s like a (bad) taste of living in the states. And obvs very very very awful for parents who just cannot rustle up the necessary funds if their children need treatment. So horrible to think of small children in pain with their teeth 😥

I never understand this, I just signed up to a local NHS dentist with no problem. Could book an appointment for the next day and they had plenty of availability.

Our local dentist will take nhs children if the parent is a private patient paying for their treatment. Is that something you could look into?

Have you tried travelling outside your area and going on NHS waiting lists.

What has been having for the last 4 years? Has she not been having check ups every 6 months? I would be cutting back on non essentials to be able to afford this.

@nappyvalley1992 I’m surprised that you can’t understand that different people have different experiences. We have a NHS dentist but the waiting list is several months for check up.

There are absolutely no NHS dentists at all where I live. They used to see only children but even that's gone now. Like @Welshfiver our private dentist now will see children on the NHS if you are a private patient.

It's been like this for years now. My dd who is at university signed up for a dentist in her university town and got an appointment straight away.

I've got denplan now. It's not cheaper than if you just pay for your check up appointments but it gives a discount if you need anything like a filling.

Just seems strange how it seems different areas vary in ability to register with an nhs dentist. There was absolute no waitlist for my nhs practice and as I said they invited me to appointment the next day after registering. I needed a filling and was offered an appointment 2 days after the check up.

You might find you can get one some distance away. My children's dentist is an hour away. Alright if you can drive, but I don't know what people without cars do (it would take all day to get there on public transport).

I think it's just because dentists can live where they want. There's enough work. The practice manager at my former NHS dentist kept saying that they just couldn't employ a dentist. They did manage to get one at one point but then he was harassed half to death and having to deal with emergencies all of the time (I know because I was one of them) and other appointments were being cancelled because he was dealing with the emergencies and people were coming in and ranting about cancelled appointments.

They started only letting people in the building who were seeing the dentist because of the complaining and then the dentist left. And I don't blame him.