Orthodontics help Scotland

[FREEM]

trying to find out if this is correct
Both of my children attend an orthodontist who is private but in our case and lots of people's sees children for orthodontics instead of nhs.

So she is paid by the nhs. presumably paid per time she sees each child for them.
I've had concerns as my 16 year old has been seeing the orthodontist every 8 weeks or more frequently for 6 years now.
she has finished treatment but still they insists she attends for them to spend 10 secs checking her .
My other child lost his first appliance.. something he was to wear to stop thumb sucking.
he's been attending ding every 4 weeks for over a year and only got the appliance in nov
we've been told not to go back unless we pay £230 for a new one.
Does this am sound right?
Happy to pay for something as we lost it but she was v v rude about it .
My main concern is... is she fleecing the nhs here!

Are your children under nhs care? My dd had braces for 2 years and now has retainers. She saw the ortho every 6-8 weeks and now that she has retainers she has a follow up every 3/4 months for 1 year. At that point she will be discharged from the ortho team. She will be charged £50-£60 if either of her retainers break/get lost and they are just thin clear plastic ones

Same as dementedpixie, my dd had braces for a year paid for by the NHS and now has a retainer. We were told if she lost it or broke it it would be £60 to replace it. She also has to go back every 3 months for a year to check her teeth haven’t moved. This is new to us as my other daughter was just handed her retainers and told see you later.

hi yes nhs care.
Thank you for your info.
yes my daughter has had those for 2 years and still has to go frequently

It's £80 per appliance NHS replacement fee, so if upper and lower are lost then £160.
However, the nhs dental rules are different in Scotland to England.

thank you katie. this was a plastic thing to stop him thumb sucking

Same for us as demented pixie. NHS Scotland.

I was under the impression that the orthos don't get their money from NHS until the treatment is completely finished and they take a whole range of photos for the file to prove this before billing NHS. Sounds like an insane amount of time. Were the teeth very bad?

Is there a reason why your children are seeing a private orthodontist and not getting NHS ortho treatment? My child had their braces done by Glasgow Orthodontics, and received really excellent treatment. Start to finish, the treatment lasted about 3 years, and their teeth were all over the place to start with. Hollywood smiles all round now.

This is mgs Scotland outsourcing to a private .
we are rural ish .

What's MGS?

I had some veneers done privately at my NHS dentist a few years ago. The work took months to complete, and cost me about £4K all in. Probably 10% of the cost was NHS treatment and the other 90% private fees. I remember after the work was done I received a letter from NHS Scotland, some department to do with funding, which wasn't quite a customer satisfaction survey, but more of an inquiry into whether I felt the dentist had behaved ethically in relation to the charges and treatment. It was a bit unusual, but felt to me like they were assessing whether the dentist was claiming honestly for work done, or was scamming the NHS on fees.

I can't remember exactly what the NHS department was, but do recall that the letter came from Cadogan Street, Glasgow. If you're concerned about the length of treatment or similar, you could maybe track the department down and drop them an email saying what you've said here.

The checks sound excessive. I have two children who have completed orthodontics recently, both have retainers. After DD's braces came off and she was fitted for retainers, she had to go back every 3 months for the first year. Then that was it. The orthodontist said that is her retainers broke at any point htat she would have to pay full rate for a new set (think it was about £110) but that she could go to any orthodontist to have that done.

DS got his braces off last April, his treatment was more complicated and he has had more appointments. Probably about 5 in the first year of retainers.

Every 8 weeks does seem excessive.