Dental costs are so high

You're absolutely right*Grannyjacq1*, dentistry certainly isn't a job young people are keen to go into - nothing glamorous about looking into peoples mouths! It's not just the actual dental work - My 29 year old niece is a dentist & the stories she tells about the behaviour of some of her patients is awful. One of the biggest problems is the current "blame culture", every kind of treatment has to be thought about & weighed up very carefully & she pays out a huge percentage of her salary in insurance against being sued. She worked in a very swanky area of London and she hated it, the well to do clients were very difficult to deal with. She is now job hunting outside the capital and she could go anywhere she wants, there are so many vacancies.

I used to have lots of dental problems (gum pockets - yeuk!) until I started oil pulling. It's an ancient Ayurvedic technique where you take a teaspoonful of coconut oil or olive oil in your mouth and swish it about for a few minutes, then spit it in the bin. The oil collects any bacteria so you're cleaning your whole mouth. Much gentler and more efficient than flossing etc. My dentist noticed a difference and just keeps saying "Carry on". If I ever have toothache, I just swish longer. You'll probably feel like gagging the first time but you get used to it and it's worth it.

spabbygirl

Grannyjacql my husband pays I think around £16 per month and that entitles him to 2 checkups and a clean per year, anything else you pay for

I pay £16 pm and for that I get 2 cleans and 2 checkups per year and 10% off treatments

I “bit” the bullet and changed to a private dentist at the end of covid when I had difficulty obtaining a nhs appointment at my pre covid practice. Plus, when I did get an emergency appointment at the original, I had a broken tooth, lost crown etc needing treatment. The dentist (never seen before) said the tooth needed to come out. OK. Went for the appointment and … he couldn’t do it! Took part of it out and admitted he couldn’t. No referral, no advice. Rang a private dentist, who say me immediately. Was horrified that a qualified dentist couldn’t complete the work and had the tooth out within minutes. No fuss, no pain, so kind and caring. It won me over. I’ve always needed treatment but always attended regularly. Decided to invest in my mouth and fifteen months later, 18 appointments, now have a beautiful smile I’m proud of and have remained pain free for 18 months. Now have a Denplan. Yes, more than I would have wanted to pay. Yes, luckily I could afford the initial treatment, Yes, I feel much less anxious every time I visit.
My real worry is children’s teeth. There is no school dentist any more and around here it is extremely difficult to find a nhs dentist even for children. I know as I’m a volunteer for Healthwatch and we have been investigating this and reporting back to the Government etc.

Grannyjacql my husband pays I think around £16 per month and that entitles him to 2 checkups and a clean per year, anything else you pay for

The trouble is, nobody seems to want to become a dentist or a nurse or a carer or a nursery worker these days. They all want to be 'influencers' or footballers or think they can make a fortune by posting a TikTok video. Maybe all gransnetters ought to start brainwashing our grandchildren so that the next generation don't suffer in the same way. Or maybe everything will be done by AI? Robot dentists, anyone??

Can anyone advise on how much private dental treatment on something like Denplan would cost (roughly) for a 70 year old female? Thanks.

our dentist recently went private cos there were problems with the NHS contract, there just wasn't another in town despite writing to my MP and checking the website often. I managed to get one in Oxford eventually & luckily I'm retired and can drive the 60 miles each way required but I really feel for people who can't and resort to diy dentistry. I can't wait to vote this awful gov't out

i recently had a private root canal done £925,daylight robbery i am having the crown done with my nhs dentist. the so called 'health professionals' have been highjacked by greed, look at the similarities with vets, we seem to follow the usa.
My tooth was near the front of my smile the option was a denture or a £3k implant! The whole situation has made me reassess my teeth, in future it is a denture! root canals can last years but then they are a dead tooth in your mouth and should we have many of those? i think not.There was a recent controversial film on netflix about root fillings which was removed, why?

MayBee70

A friend of mine still has a NHS dentist but was advised to have her treatment done privately as she wouldn’t have the work done to a high enough standard if she had it done as an NHS patient. Although I had a check up the other day I wasn’t offered the usual scrape and polish that I usually have. Although, to be fair maybe that’s an annual thing and I may have had it done last time ( I was relieved, to be honest, because. I always seem to lose a filling after a a scrape and polish!). I dread to think how many mouth cancers are going to be missed because people aren’t having check up and heart disease is sometimes linked to bad dental hygiene. It’s such a false economy. I also know of a private dentist whose practice was taken over by a larger concern and he moved to another practice because the standard he was expected to work to after the takeover was far too low.

The dentist basically told her that they shoddy work if it's for NHS patients!? I'd be out of there like a shot! One way to make more money, I guess. "Yes we can do it, but unless you pay a lot more we won't do it as well"! 🤦‍♂️

Why won't your dentist do the root canal? There cannot be any infection in the tooth or the root canal if he has put on a crown!

He sounds pretty useless to me, as any time I have needed a root canal ( I have had three done at different times) whichever dentist I went to, did them as a matter of course.

Do get a second opinion and an estimate from another dentist immediately.

kittylester

In my view, if a dentist is working on the NHS, the treatment should be at the same standard as if/when they are working privately.

Some treatments may not be cost effective on the NHS because of the way the contract is structured but it qould be unprofessional to do 2 standards of work

I think it’s the time constraint on NHS work that’s the problem.

lilcat while working overseas I had a (very painful and expensive!) root canal filling in a back tooth, and shortly after I returned to England it broke in half - the wonderful NHS dentist that I saw as an emergency asked why I had the root canal filling when the tooth wasn't biting on anything and I could just have had it removed! So I agree with other posters - if it's at the back, ask for advice about extracting it.

For the pain and feeling generally grotty, I'd suggest you get any abscess drained (if you haven't already).
For a root canal, ask if your dentist can refer you to a dental school.
I had a root canal done at the Eastman in London - the dentist was qualified and was studying for a postgraduate qualification. It was in a back tooth with a cracked root (so high risk) but I'm munching away happily on it seven years later. However, I did have to wait months for an appointment – this depends on how many students they have.

My NHS dentist has effectively been private for years - incrementally reducing the time in the practice diary for NHS patients so that appointments are made for several months in the future so we’ve been used to private dental charges and have come to accept them. In some countries nobody gets dental care without paying privately so we’re just glad that for the vast majority of our lives we were lucky enough to get NHS care and now we factor our dental treatment into our annual budget as much as we can. At least we can get a private appointment without waiting three months.

Why don’t we stop making Drs and dentists pay university fees, also stop making nurses go to university to qualify as a nurse, wouldn’t they do much better to learn hands on actually being in the hospitals full time, nurses are so stretched at the moment and the students can get on with blood tests etc. Anyway you may think it would cost us a lot to stop income from the Drs/Dentists university fees but you could then make them work for the NHS for 10/15 years before they go off for example to Australia or go private (Australia recently mocked us saying they look forward to our trained up professionals going over to work for them). After their stint in the NHS they could then take their expertise to the private industry or go off to other countries (still only being in late 30s or early 40s) having worked for the NHS and passing their expertise onto younger Drs/Dentists coming through. Let’s just stop all our young professionals being able to get highly trained and then go off to earn in the private industry and leaving the NHS without enough staff, (they don’t pay their full university fees by the way, it’s subsidised by taxpayers) I’m not saying they shouldn’t be able to earn more or work where they want, I just think it’s fairer if they don’t pay fees but in return they stay in the NHS for an agreed time (even 5 years would help at the moment)

In my view, if a dentist is working on the NHS, the treatment should be at the same standard as if/when they are working privately.

Some treatments may not be cost effective on the NHS because of the way the contract is structured but it qould be unprofessional to do 2 standards of work

I think it is still the case that if an NHS patient requires a scale and polish they should have one on the NHS as part of their treatment - to make them dentally fit.

I had one recently. At least, that’s what I think it was. I have really sensitive teeth so I never forget having them: it’s always a real Marathon Man few minutes! They x rayed my teeth a few months ago as well. That’s when I wondered if they were doing it because they were going 100% private.

MayBee70

A friend of mine still has a NHS dentist but was advised to have her treatment done privately as she wouldn’t have the work done to a high enough standard if she had it done as an NHS patient. Although I had a check up the other day I wasn’t offered the usual scrape and polish that I usually have. Although, to be fair maybe that’s an annual thing and I may have had it done last time ( I was relieved, to be honest, because. I always seem to lose a filling after a a scrape and polish!). I dread to think how many mouth cancers are going to be missed because people aren’t having check up and heart disease is sometimes linked to bad dental hygiene. It’s such a false economy. I also know of a private dentist whose practice was taken over by a larger concern and he moved to another practice because the standard he was expected to work to after the takeover was far too low.

Scale and Polish is a thing of the past MaryBee70. They stopped doing these on the NHS many years ago. You now have to book to see a hygienist which costs about £80.

It’s a year long waiting list here in Australia for free dental treatment
Only emergencies are seen sooner.
Cost of private dentistry is completely crazy !

A friend of mine still has a NHS dentist but was advised to have her treatment done privately as she wouldn’t have the work done to a high enough standard if she had it done as an NHS patient. Although I had a check up the other day I wasn’t offered the usual scrape and polish that I usually have. Although, to be fair maybe that’s an annual thing and I may have had it done last time ( I was relieved, to be honest, because. I always seem to lose a filling after a a scrape and polish!). I dread to think how many mouth cancers are going to be missed because people aren’t having check up and heart disease is sometimes linked to bad dental hygiene. It’s such a false economy. I also know of a private dentist whose practice was taken over by a larger concern and he moved to another practice because the standard he was expected to work to after the takeover was far too low.

I am so lucky to still have an NHS dentist although no new patients being taken unless private and the other dentist in the practice is all private.
I recently broke a corner of a tooth. No decay so he filled it with amalgam and with check up and clean and polish it was just over £70.
When my H was still alive he could no longer get to his old dentist so I took him to our nearest one.
£300+ for initial treatment and it went on from there.
Someone I know who does not have good teeth went for a checkup there and they quoted £2,400 for a few fillings.
She declined , went elsewhere and was quoted £600 for the same treatment.
She is highly delighted with the work done.

MayBee70

I’m so lucky that my dentist is no longer taking on NHS patients but is still going to continue to provide a NHS-service for current patients. I was really expecting them to tell me that I was going to have to go private because they’ve refurbished the place and put a chandelier in the waiting room. I can’t get my head around the fact that this country isn’t providing NHS dental treatment for people and everyone just accepts it.

Do you mean free dental care, because unless you are on certain benefits, everyone has to pay towards the cost. NHS or private. There are also dental plans. I'm lucky, my dentist is still NHS, have to pay though, up to 306 for crowns etc. I've just been online, all dentists in one town near me taking on NHS patients, and a new one open in my town, taking both NHS and private, as mine does. so I do think where you live makes a difference.

If the offending tooth is at the back personally I would have it removed. There is no guarantee with root canal treatment that it will work.