Dentists

[tom_e]

I'm posting this thread purely to make me feel better about my visit to mine this afternoon.

£190... For a checkup and a polish. £190! £190!

Nothing wrong with my teeth so that's literally the best it was ever going to be.

£190 flipping quid!

 

[tom_e]

The worst bit is as painful as the bill was it's not going to bankrupt me, but there's plenty of people that just simply couldn't afford that and finding an NHS dentist is for all intents and purposes basically impossible.

 

[tom_e]

That's quite a lot! Luckily I have an NHS dentist so only get fleeced 90 quid for the hygienist twice a year and (I think) £25 for a check up. Although I had a chat with mine about invisalign today so I might be on the hook for £4k soon.

At most it would have cost under £60 on the NHS

In fact it might have all been done under 1 treatment so under £30.

 

[tom_e]

I just wouldn't bother mate.

I went about 15 years if nut a bit longer once between Dentists visits and my teeth are fine.

To be fair until I pulled a filling out on a chewy sweet a couple of Christmas' ago I hadn't been since I was a student (so at least a decade probably closer to 15 years) and other than getting the filling sorted and a good clean up everything else was fine.

So will probably end up going back to very infrequent visits, definitely not the 2 check ups and 2 hygienist visits they want to cash in on every year

 

[tom_e]

Did they give you an estimate of how much the treatment was going to cost?
Any radiographs as part of that?
How long was your timeslot?

5 minute checkup £48, x-rays to check for anything they couldn't see in the checkup £42, 30 minute hygienist £97

 

[tom_e]

Why not get a basic checkup on the NHS and save private dentistry for when you actually need work done ?

It's only £27 for a checkup at an NHS dentist and the covid backlog seems to have cleared a long time ago making it pretty easy to get an appointment, granted this is in London...

Most private dentists in my area (south west London) charge £70-80 for a checkup, £190 is an absolute mugging. Is there only one dentist for the entire town or something ?

You find me an NHS dentist taking on adults around here and I'll pay you the £190 as a finders fee.

 

[tom_e]

Yeah i saw your later post about not being able to find one in your area, that sucks. I presume you've used this ?

Find a dentist - NHS

Find a dentist near you on the NHS website. Check your local dentist's opening times, services, facilities, reviews and ratings.

www.nhs.uk

It tells you if each dentist in your area is taking on new NHS patients or not.

I've tried it in the past and unfortunately it's completely out of date at least around here

 

[tom_e]

Sounds like Sonicare might be better?

My Sonicare is still going strong 6 years later.

 

[tom_e]

Which model do you have?

Diamondclean 9000, looks like it's been updated since I got mine though and doubled in price

 

[tom_e]

I aways try to get an appointment for tooth hurty in the afternoon.

This particular appointment was actually at tooth hurty so I made sure to say half 2 when I was talking to the receptionist...didn't want to be that middle aged guy

 

[tom_e]

I know someone who went to Hungary to get some major work done. Stayed for a week afterwards and it was about 1/4 the price all in.

UK is ripped off with everything.

On the flip side do you know how much it costs to actually live in Hungary compared to their wage? The UK is cheap.

 

[tom_e]

Just to update with a happy ending, the dentist 30 seconds walk from this one put a post up on FB yesterday evening saying they were accepting new NHS patients so I'm booked in for my next check up with them in a couple of months for the princely sum of £27. Lovely jubbly.

 

[tom_e]

Good joke, you got me there...

 

[tom_e]

Just go private, nowhere near as expensive as people think especially if your teeth are still decent.

Not sure if you read the opening post but I'd call nearly £190 for a checkup and a hygienist appointment pretty pricey in comparison to under £30 on the NHS.

 

[tom_e]

You can’t get hygienist under the nhs from according to my dentist. That alone is £90/£100.

Gum treatment including scaling​

If your dental healthcare professional says scaling is clinically needed, you can get it on the NHS. It can be done by a hygienist or dental therapist.

Scaling is usually included in Band 1 (£27.40), but extensive treatment, or treatment for complex gum problems may be charged as a Band 2 (£75.30) treatment.

If the dentist says scaling is not clinically necessary, you’ll have to pay for it privately.

I'd assume they probably claim it's not clinically needed so they can get the private fee. Which is not surprising, why would they only want to make pennies when they can make £100. On the other hand go private and a hygienist appointment is recommended with every check up.

 

[tom_e]

I've got dental insurance as a work benefit, which covers most of the normal stuff for neglible cost to myself. So I've been able to afford private the past few years.

Overall, the dentist has been helpful with good advice for my brushing etc. I actually had my previous 6-monthly appointment last week.
I did ask about teeth colour, but I was told that teeth are naturally not white... huh? That doesn't sound right...

Depends what you class as white I suppose, they're naturally more shades of yellow/cream due to the dentin definitely not the white you see when people have gone overboard on having them done.