NHS Dental registration - quick question

iaind

iaind

iaind

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Hope this doesnt count as asking for medical advice!

Was registered with a local NHS dentist aaaages ago (probably 6~7 years ago now) and havent been since - have been using a more conveniently located private dentist since.

Now I need some treatment that may cost a small fortune in the private dentist - everything does apart from checkups and really basic things! So want to go NHS this time. Question is, am I still likely to be registered with the original one? I know I can just phone them but they're closed till monday and if I'm not going to be registered I can start some groundwork to find somwhere else!

Cheers!
 
no if you dont go there at least annually for checkups you get kicked off the NHS list, you cant just go find another NHS dentist as you have treatment in progress you have to complete treatment before you can register as NHS

P.s I know this cos my dentist said I needed a filling was gonna cost like £100 then he opened an NHS list and I couldnt get on it until I had my filling and obviously paid privately for it
 
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Damn, was hoping that wasnt going to be the case

I don't have treatment in progress at the moment, so I guess I'll need to talk to the local PCT to find somewhere else
 
Most de-register you after 18 months of no contact, however a few generous ones may keep you on for a year or so after that depending on demand in the area though. It's unlikely you'll still be on their list, doesn't mean you can't try to re-register with them though.
 
Halfmad said:
Most de-register you after 18 months of no contact, however a few generous ones may keep you on for a year or so after that depending on demand in the area though. It's unlikely you'll still be on their list, doesn't mean you can't try to re-register with them though.
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Doubt they'll be that generous! The NHS website says they're not accepting new NHS registrations at the moment so probably worth trying to find one that is.
 
some hospitals have walk in dentists for like emergencies, you could make out your in more pain then you are if your willing to wait around for hours
 
Nah, not about to do that - it's not that bad.

Assume if I can find a practice that's showing as accepting new registrations, it's just a case of phoning them for an appointment and registering?
 
iaind said:
Nah, not about to do that - it's not that bad.

Assume if I can find a practice that's showing as accepting new registrations, it's just a case of phoning them for an appointment and registering?
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even if they are accepting new registrations you probably get put on a long waiting list
 
That sounds more logical...

Is it best to phone them directly or talk to the PCT and let them sort it out?
 
If you ring your local dental helpline they should be able to tell you what to do next. Some areas they can direct you to a dentist who is accepting new registrations. In some areas you will be put on a waiting list and allocated a new dentist when one comes up. If you are prepared to travel a bit and don't just want one that is close to you, sometimes this can help you get registered quicker.

Details of the Devon PCT Dental Helpline.
 
the socialist health care system in the UK removes you from the register after something like 12 or 18 months of not turning up to that particular dentist.

You then have to re-apply and wait 36, 48, 60 months before getting back onto a National Health Socialist Dental Registry.

I love the UK :p...
 
Keltik THC said:
the socialist health care system in the UK removes you from the register after something like 12 or 18 months of not turning up to that particular dentist.

You then have to re-apply and wait 36, 48, 60 months before getting back onto a National Health Socialist Dental Registry.

I love the UK :p...
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what are you talking about?
You just need to find an NHS dentist convienient to you that is accepting patients, unlike GP's you don't even have to live locally so long as you can justify that it's a convinient dentist for you.

If you can get registered at an NHS run practice, not a private practice that does NHS work. They will take you on regardless of the current state of your teeth and everything will be correctly charged at the NHS rates which are per course of treatment, where a course of treatment is defined as any work carried out within a rolling 3 month period. You only ever get charged ~£16, ~£45 or ~£190 regardless of how many appt's you have, it just depends on which category the type of work falls into. I had a checkup and 6 small fillings done and got charged £45 for the 4 appointments that it took.

I'm not sure how rare they are, I just happened across the one I'm registered at, but it's definitely the way to go if you can. I don't know how dentists claiming to be doing NHS work get away with charging so much more.
 
You dont need to do anything to get a new dentist, you dont to finish current treatment, I did it three times in a very short time frame.

You just register with the new dentist and completely forget about your old. They did that to make it easier and that you arent forced to get ripped off.
 
iaind said:
Hope this doesnt count as asking for medical advice!

Was registered with a local NHS dentist aaaages ago (probably 6~7 years ago now) and havent been since - have been using a more conveniently located private dentist since.

Now I need some treatment that may cost a small fortune in the private dentist - everything does apart from checkups and really basic things! So want to go NHS this time. Question is, am I still likely to be registered with the original one? I know I can just phone them but they're closed till monday and if I'm not going to be registered I can start some groundwork to find somwhere else!

Cheers!
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Registration lasted for 15 months.
Recently in northern ireland this was increased to 2 years.
It was for political purpsoes allowing them to state more people were registered, rather than any actual treatment being provided, so looks like they have 25% more people being looked after for the same amount of money.

Registration is your right to emergency treatment, if you can't be arsed to turn up for 6-7 years you'd have to be kidding to think a dentist would care when you're in pain.
 
Abraham said:
what are you talking about?
You just need to find an NHS dentist convienient to you that is accepting patients, unlike GP's you don't even have to live locally so long as you can justify that it's a convinient dentist for you.
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I am talking about my own personal experience of having to wait years before being accepted onto a NHS Dentist registry.. although I forgot its lottery depending on where you live, up here in Aberdeen, NHS dentists are few and far between, infact we have over a third of all people in the UK who are on waiting national dentist waiting lists in the Grampian area, it is a chronic problem, so people like me are left to wait over 2 years before even getting near an NHS dentist.

Maybe not so difficult for you to find an NHS dentist, its very hard up here.

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/north/67306-north-east-has-highest-shortage-of-nhs-dentists/

The national list for people waiting to see a dentist currently stands at 82,166 with NHS Grampian having more than a third of this total with 30,936 people on their list.
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EDIT: newer article about NHS Grampian's terrible record at dentistry, from Jan 2010... things still haven't changed as per the above article: http://times.cluster.newsint.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article6975517.ece
 
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Well do remember most dental disease is preventable.
If the UK actually pushed money into that we could cut the decay rate significantly, so waiting times over a period of years would fall through the floor, but people have to take responsibility for the infected tiddues in tehir own mouths that they neither clean nor stop feeding sugar into.

The problem is as with most of the rest of the UK, low responsibility and high desire for rights. Start with your kids, don't feed them crap, they won't have dental issues, end of story.
 
Hikari Kisugi said:
The problem is as with most of the rest of the UK, low responsibility and high desire for rights. Start with your kids, don't feed them crap, they won't have dental issues, end of story.
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Not for all people i'm afraid, i was born with an enamel deficiency - my teeth aren't bad although they aren't the best either.

For example my brother and sisters teeth are perfect, i grew up eating exactly the same diet as them and was treated exactly the same by our parents but they have amazing pearly whites and mine are not so perfect.

I understand your point, but dental issues aren't always down to poor parenting / nutrition etc..
 
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