I’d not entertain a £50 have medical , but , I went for 6 monthly dentist check up , apparently my teeth are good but a few bits missing , few fillings , and normal clean , so dentist said she’d email me a plan
App 1
6 month check £56.65
Small radiograph £25.76
Small radiograph £25.76
App 2
Hygiene visit £55.00
Amalgam restoration £143.17
Amalgam restoration £143.17
Glass Iononer £88.58
App 3
Posterior composite filling £187.40
Posterior composite filling £ 164.80
Total 890.35
I had to read it 3 times , it’s private apparently , what’s the o/t , b/h rates these days !! I don’t know how they get away with it , day light robbery , no wonder a lot don’t go
Have you factored in the years of Dental School and student loans, public liability insurance, the cost of renting a chair in an established dental practice or setting up a practice, and equipping it with staff, tools and medicines/Anaesthetic. This is why no one will work in the NHS dental scheme as they can’t make it profitable.
In my case the practice is owned by a semi retired couple who built up a practice and now rent out all the chairs (12) and many of the dentists work 2-3 days at one practice and then work at another place 2-3 days, and many of them are running around in battered old cars.
I’d suggest that you get some health insurance that covers the cost of dental/optical bills, it makes the bitter (bill) pill easier to swallow
and many of them are running around in battered old cars…
The last car Robert Wiseman, of the dairy fame, had before he died in 2004 was an M reg Mondeo 
Round our way you daren’t upset your NHS dentist in case they decide to remove you, you won’t get registered with another.
Before the state ordered national house arrest we even had a disturbing message from them that if we didn’t have regular enough private cleaning we might be removed from the NHS list…i should add that at the time they employed a woman who spent about 15 minutes ticking boxes and about 2 minutes actually doing something useful in your cake hole hence reluctant to cough up some £60 at the time for her to do bugger all, our more recent visit there’s now an east european lady hygienist who doesn’t tick boxes or waste time and does a really thorough job, suspect there’s been a change in management because its a much more pleasant experience than it was.
Our previous dentist who came out of the NHS scheme would clean your teeth at the same time as inspection, his charges barely more than what they would have been with NHS contribution, sadly he retired and his surgery is now just like all the other group owned places.
Overall, with a rapidly increasing population who don’t contribute (and probably never will) things can only get worse and like the main NHS itself its days as we once knew it are long gone.
Some of my friends and colleagues have taken to visiting eastern europe and further afield for more extensive dental work, prices of around 25% what the same work would cost here with care and facilities far in advance of ours, one or two have taken the family which allowed them to have a holiday whilst they underwent treatment over several days, and still £thousands in pocket.
Can see an increasing number of dyed in the wool Brits moving lock stock and barrell eastwards in the coming years.
I think the days of low cost dental care from the NHS are long gone…
As said earlier, due to the house arrest (I like that description), I have not been to the Pain Meister for a couple of years.
When I tried to get an appointment, I was “told” I am now private and a check up only is £75, plus any work that needs to be done.
But, and a huge but, private dental care is still much cheaper than other EU countries!
I had a broken tooth taken out while I was in Norway, cost me just short of £600.
A simple filling was £200 in Sweden.
Have a nice day
Paul
sonflowerinwales:
I think the days of low cost dental care from the NHS are long gone…
As said earlier, due to the house arrest (I like that description), I have not been to the Pain Meister for a couple of years.
When I tried to get an appointment, I was “told” I am now private and a check up only is £75, plus any work that needs to be done.
But, and a huge but, private dental care is still much cheaper than other EU countries!
I had a broken tooth taken out while I was in Norway, cost me just short of £600.
A simple filling was £200 in Sweden.
Have a nice day
Paul
I thought there was a dental tourism industry, perhaps Latvia or Bulgaria or somewhere, where substantial work is much cheaper. Perhaps I am thinking of breast implants.
Im in a simular boat. Havent been to the dentist for years for various reasons mainly because they are a bunch or dirty robbing so and so’s and i have no time for thier whingeing rubish about how they have to wait a week or 2 to claim the money back from the nhs or how they can only do the bare minimum for health reasons etc when the real reason is they can con you out of 3 or 4 appts rather than doing it in one sitting.
Of course i have ended up with tooth ache it got so bad the whole of the left side of my face was swollen up llike a gerbil. and of course i had to go private. I wont bore you with the details of the first incompetent jerk i went to howerver, I have discovered an “independent dentist” that is a dang sight cheaper than private infact it is only a few pounds more than the standerd nhs price. For example i had a tooth out first dentest wanted between 160 and 350 depending on the tooth I had three in my upper jaw and only one of them on the left side and needed to be extracted where as the independent dentist told me it was 60 quid job done.
njl:
sonflowerinwales:
I think the days of low cost dental care from the NHS are long gone…
As said earlier, due to the house arrest (I like that description), I have not been to the Pain Meister for a couple of years.
When I tried to get an appointment, I was “told” I am now private and a check up only is £75, plus any work that needs to be done.
But, and a huge but, private dental care is still much cheaper than other EU countries!
I had a broken tooth taken out while I was in Norway, cost me just short of £600.
A simple filling was £200 in Sweden.
Have a nice day
PaulI thought there was a dental tourism industry, perhaps Latvia or Bulgaria or somewhere, where substantial work is much cheaper. Perhaps I am thinking of breast implants.
No, you’re right. It used to Poland, but is now Turkey (nicknamed Turkey teeth by the press).All the teeth look the same as everyone elses that has them, and some opt for the ‘left the lights on in my mouth’ look .
Katie Price and her OH have them.
On the subject of dentist, I know of 2 people in the past that have uttered the immortal line of “I’ve not been to a dentist for 10 years and my teeth are fine”, while at the same time exhibiting the most incredible calculus bridge.(google that and look at images, it’s not a maths thing)
Small wonder that so many drivers (including myself) don’t have good teeth.
Factor in the cost, the hassles in getting to an appointment without booking a day’s holiday especially if you’re tramping, and the fact that so many of us are downright unhealthy anyway. Plus the fairly strong chance of the planner screwing up and you not only missing that appointment but having to pay for it as well.
They may well have to go through a lot of training and other associated costs, but I suspect that they all without exception are handsomely rewarded for it.
Dav1d:
njl:
sonflowerinwales:
I think the days of low cost dental care from the NHS are long gone…
As said earlier, due to the house arrest (I like that description), I have not been to the Pain Meister for a couple of years.
When I tried to get an appointment, I was “told” I am now private and a check up only is £75, plus any work that needs to be done.
But, and a huge but, private dental care is still much cheaper than other EU countries!
I had a broken tooth taken out while I was in Norway, cost me just short of £600.
A simple filling was £200 in Sweden.
Have a nice day
PaulI thought there was a dental tourism industry, perhaps Latvia or Bulgaria or somewhere, where substantial work is much cheaper. Perhaps I am thinking of breast implants.
No, you’re right. It used to Poland, but is now Turkey (nicknamed Turkey teeth by the press).All the teeth look the same as everyone elses that has them, and some opt for the ‘left the lights on in my mouth’ look .
Katie Price and her OH have them.On the subject of dentist, I know of 2 people in the past that have uttered the immortal line of “I’ve not been to a dentist for 10 years and my teeth are fine”, while at the same time exhibiting the most incredible calculus bridge.(google that and look at images, it’s not a maths thing)
Romania too.
i found the really cheap way [if your in agony] is the hospital, i think most hospitals have a dentist.they only do tooth removal but its free and no messing around either.i had an abscess which was drained free . Im absolutely sure that the mainstream dentists only want you onboard with a wad of cash to be milked rest of your life
I Googled…
Dental health plans.
I found one for £8.49 a month which gives you check up, basic and emergency services.
I pay just over £14 a month for two check ups and two hygene cleans.
I got a dental plan 10 a month. It makes life easy.
I’m paying around £40+/month for a health plan (level 5?) with Westfield Health in Sheffield westfieldhealth.com/ which I have paid into for decades, starting when I worked down the local coal mine, it gives me some serious payouts for dental, optical, physio, hospital stays and more. Subject to a maximum amount. I pay for the dentist, optician and claim it back. You can claim for your wife and kids treatment within that value. So far I think I have broken even throughout my life so I don’t begrudge paying it
i go every 6 mths, pay £23 ish each time. i get full check up and cleaning (scale and polish) wife pays the same but has a full set of her own teeth, i have partial dentures.
Thanks all , mrs has a plan / insurance with dentist which I believe pays for some treatment but not all , £13 pm
I’ll look into it , never bothered as very rarely need anything other than polish / clean , certainly never had to pay anything like £800 +
Was nhs but dentist closed & new one only did private
Wife and I are paying £16/month (each) for our dental plan, was about £10/month when we started a few years ago. About 5 years ago we were on holiday in California and the wife lost a filling, cost approx £500 to sort out. When we got back home claimed on the dental plan and they refunded about 80%.
Tyneside
I’d say I’m shocked, but I’m not, but actually I’m still with an NHS dentist so count myself extremely fortunate. Got a check up on Friday actually.
Whatever happens with the future of NHS dentistry I’m not so certain about, but its always struck me as odd that I can collapse with heart problem or break a leg or whatever and get everything done to fix me up again at absolutely zero cost ti ne beyond my tax and NI payments but your teeth have somehow become a less essential part of the body test require an extra surcharge. Like why has it been decided and accepted that treatment of the teeth is so different to treatment on other body parts?
@toonsey agree wholeheartedly, it’s about health. We are responsible for looking after our own health but when things go wrong NHS should kick in, we pay enough.
On a similar note why aren’t Rnli ,air ambulance and mountain rescue paid by government, they save lives as well.
toonsy:
. Like why has it been decided and accepted that treatment of the teeth is so different to treatment on other body parts?
You can trace that back to the first few years of the NHS. There was such a mad rush from working people who’d previously only used dentists for extreme emergencies (due to cost) to have a set of brand new state-funded gnashers that it cost the government an absolute mint, and they swiftly cut back on the service and instituted charges for adults.
The knock-on effect of course was that those few years made the dentists of the day very wealthy indeed, and it came to be seen as a profession where you could make a lot of money rather than one which cared for people; giving rise to the situation we have today.