If you’d like to register with an NHS dentist in all of the Somerset area you’re out of luck.

The Government made working for the NHS as a dentist financially impossible, so they have no option but to do at least part of their work privately. Go figure!

I am yet to meet an impoverished dentist.

It’s 99% private here and no one can get into the public ones anyway. It costs $ 72 just for a check up and my last dental bill was around $1,200 for a root canal. We just accept it. I guess the uk is going the same way.

There's NHS dentists here but would they see a child in dire need over the last 2 years?
No, yet my private dentists did open after lockdowns.

I pay £85 for a checkup…. No NHS dentists my neck of the woods.

Same in Wales .

Not many in Norfolk and Suffolk if you ve got one hang in there as you won’t get one if you’re not on the books
I ve noticed my check up is barely worth opening my mouth for I m out the chair before I m in it takes longer paying my twenty something at the desk

GrannyGravy13

I am yet to meet an impoverished dentist.

Dentists are highly skilled professionals, would you expect them to lose money by working solely for the NHS? The NHS dental contract needs urgent reform, the Government needs to make good the shortfall in funding for NHS work which has accumulated over the last decade, and pay for more training places. If that doesn’t happen the service will be wholly private within 10 years, and people will resort to tying a piece of string round their tooth and slamming the door to pull it out. It is that serious.

I live in an area that has NHS dentists, and I have wondered why. We also have some private schools nearby, and I wonder if someone who knows these things could confirm my thoughts:
I think that nearly all of the private school pupils who are eligible for NHS care are registered with these dentists (even non-boarders would find it convenient). These are children who will mostly have had good general health and mouth care. So I think that the practice claims their check-up fee regularly (the kids are all convenient) but don't have to spend a great deal of time doing so. That subsidises the NHS fees for more time-consuming work.
They also have a high turnover of young / recent UK arrivals for dentists. No continuity, but they have all been very good, and have given me excellent care. This ensured that I had some difficult and time-consuming work done on the NHs a few years ago.

I contrast this to a deprived area where I lived & worked for a long time, and where we lost all our NHS dentists (apart from the directly employed)

Any comments?

Casdon

GrannyGravy13

I am yet to meet an impoverished dentist.

Dentists are highly skilled professionals, would you expect them to lose money by working solely for the NHS? The NHS dental contract needs urgent reform, the Government needs to make good the shortfall in funding for NHS work which has accumulated over the last decade, and pay for more training places. If that doesn’t happen the service will be wholly private within 10 years, and people will resort to tying a piece of string round their tooth and slamming the door to pull it out. It is that serious.

Not at all Casdon I do not expect them to lose any money. My dear friend is a dentist, mainly NHS with one day a week for private patients. They are highly skilled as you say, more so now than in previous years.

Like GP’s I think they were involved with negotiations regarding their contracts. Dentistry like most medical professions has advanced greatly in the last 20 years, some requiring more time in the chair it’s not a case of a quick filling, bridge or plate these days.

I remember that before Blair we all had access to NHS dentistry and had no problems getting a GP appointment or or a home visit, even out of hours, by a GP from your surgery.

By the time Blair was finished with us, all that had gone. Is there no end to the damage he wreaked on us all? ‘Agenda for Change’ has a lot to answer for in my humble.

DH has said for 40 years that there has been an agenda to privatise nhs dentistry by stealth.

Part of the problem is that people don't like dentists so they do not have the same public support when negotiating as medics do.

Blair obviously didn’t ‘like’ them either kitty!

Blair "reformed" the GP payments system, resulting in a money oriented GP service which fails the needs of patients but amazingly overlooked the separately funded dental sector.

As a result there was no money left for the dentists so a hotch-potch private/public funding model was cobbled together in a panic.

The result gas been to make NHS dentistry unrewarding.
The health system in the UK is broken. Completely - but no government is brave enough to face down the NHS unions and deliver real change.

We're being held hostage to a Soviet style "take what you're given" health service with the difference that we're paying top rates for it.

I can go a little way to answering your comments Nannarose. Parents of children attending private boarding schools are encouraged to make check up dental appointments with the family dentist back home during school holidays. We would not take a child to the local dentist unless it were an emergency. Should the child need to see the dentist then a private rate fee is charged. Check ups are not performed.

I think the cost of Dentistry in the UK has become ludicrously expensive- but that doesn’t necessarily mean “ludicrous profits” for Dentists.

A decade or so back, the government allowed “corporates” to buy and run dental surgeries, and that together with the impossible nature of obtaining new contacts almost impossible.

I hear it’s unimaginably difficult to set up a practice “from scratch” these days.

Now you’re making me laugh Urmstongran. How long have the Tories been in power, is 12 years long enough to put right any ills of the last Labour Government? If not, what have the Tories been doing all this time?

That used to be called 'squatting' urms and was how quite a few practices began as dentists were paid for what they had done and didn't have to tender for predicted work and then worry about achieving it.

Just as an aside, years ago our family could not get an NHS dentist for love nor money. Husband and myself are both at NHS dentists miles away. Our children ended up at another different clinic. I would like to move to one nearer my home, but am terrified to move, incase I lose the dentist Ive got. This is in Scotland, where supposedly we all have marvellous services. I can assure people services here are just as bad as anywhere else, if not worse. It was ridiculous closing dentists and opticians during Lockdown, they are a medical necessity,just as much as any other medical treatment.My previous dentist retired, they had had enough. My new dentist tells me the backlog of patients is never- ending. I do feel very sorry for them.

Casdon

Now you’re making me laugh Urmstongran. How long have the Tories been in power, is 12 years long enough to put right any ills of the last Labour Government? If not, what have the Tories been doing all this time?

If that was the only thing wrong maybe they could but,as I said, there has been a move towards privatising dentistry for at least the last 45 years.

Recommendations by review bodies have been consistently ignored and general dental surgeons don't have the clout of general medical practitioners.

kittylester

Casdon

Now you’re making me laugh Urmstongran. How long have the Tories been in power, is 12 years long enough to put right any ills of the last Labour Government? If not, what have the Tories been doing all this time?

If that was the only thing wrong maybe they could but,as I said, there has been a move towards privatising dentistry for at least the last 45 years.

Recommendations by review bodies have been consistently ignored and general dental surgeons don't have the clout of general medical practitioners.

Yes, you’re right kittylester, although it was never envisaged as a fully private system until the Tories came into power in 2010 - the Blair model was very watered down (and more dentist driven) compared with the current system, and working within the NHS was still feasible financially for those who wanted to. You’re also right about the relative lack of clout politically that dentists have compared with doctors.
However the point I was making to Urmstongran was how ridiculous it is to hang the blame on a Labour government (Tony Blair stopped being PM in 2008) when 12 years have passed since the Tories came into power, which is long enough for any bad decisions and policies to be righted if there’s a will.

Casdon

kittylester

Casdon

Now you’re making me laugh Urmstongran. How long have the Tories been in power, is 12 years long enough to put right any ills of the last Labour Government? If not, what have the Tories been doing all this time?

If that was the only thing wrong maybe they could but,as I said, there has been a move towards privatising dentistry for at least the last 45 years.

Recommendations by review bodies have been consistently ignored and general dental surgeons don't have the clout of general medical practitioners.

Yes, you’re right kittylester, although it was never envisaged as a fully private system until the Tories came into power in 2010 - the Blair model was very watered down (and more dentist driven) compared with the current system, and working within the NHS was still feasible financially for those who wanted to. You’re also right about the relative lack of clout politically that dentists have compared with doctors.
However the point I was making to Urmstongran was how ridiculous it is to hang the blame on a Labour government (Tony Blair stopped being PM in 2008) when 12 years have passed since the Tories came into power, which is long enough for any bad decisions and policies to be righted if there’s a will.

Many people voted for Blair because they thought he might reverse some of the privatisation begun by Mrs Thatcher.

He didn't which was a great disappointment to many.
Water should never have been privatised.

Thank you, i know I am right casdon. And, as dh said 45 years ago, stealthy privatisation has been on the cards since before then by all governments.

And, in fact, Labour governments have been by far the worst for ignoring review body recommendations.

Thanks Joseanne. I know nothing of private schools and was just speculating as to how the practice manages to offer NHS work when so many don't.
The general area is not affluent, but the immediate areas around the 2 private schools are more so. Both are mostly boarding I believe.
No-one else has offered any explanation!

And, in fact, Labour governments have been by far the worst for ignoring review body recommendations

That’s been the opinion of my dental friend too kitty.