[Misc] Full extent of NHS dentistry shortage revealed

[Herr Tubthumper]

This is quite a damning report.

"Nine in 10 NHS dental practices across the UK are not accepting new adult patients for treatment under the health service"

"Eight in 10 NHS practices are not taking on children."

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-62253893

Does this tally with people's experience?

 

[Gwylan]

This is quite a damning report.

"Nine in 10 NHS dental practices across the UK are not accepting new adult patients for treatment under the health service"

"Eight in 10 NHS practices are not taking on children."

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-62253893

Does this tally with people's experience?

Yep. I've had to pay £800 for my son's extractions as couldn't find an NHS dentist in B&H

 

[Titanic]

There are no 'NHS dentists'. They are all independent businesses, paid to do NHS work (which is not free at the point of use). It is and always has been a funding issue.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Yes, we found an ‘NHS’ dentist when we moved here but were put on a 6 month waiting list for a first appointment. The incentives are all wrong with this hybrid private/NHS system. I think the reality is that there is no NHS dentistry just Government subsidy of private dentists. When we have gone private in the past we have been recommended unnecessary, expensive work so don’t trust the private element at all.

 

[WATFORD zero]

Our local dentist did our kids on the NHS, but they stopped doing adults and me and Mrs Wz had to go private (IIRC) about 20 years ago

 

[Barrow Boy]

We use to go private to a Dentist in Southwick, but although the service was excellent the bills started climbing. When our Dentist retired in Jan 2020 we decided to leave and try and get in with a more local one as NHS patients, then the Pandemic hit. We tried for over 2 years to get an NHS one with no luck, all of them would take us on private though! Finally got taken on by a Lancing surgery as NHS patients last week, and have got our first appointments 2nd September, phew!
The amount of work I'm going to have done is scary.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

There were no NHS dentists in Faversham when I moved here 33 years ago. There is one, now, but I have stuck with the same people. They do NHS work for kids however. Hybrid system indeed.

In my view dentists and doctors should all be NHS if they have trained in our highly subsidised university system. Well, that was my view till the fees system was brought in.

Just like the absurd dental hybrid private NHS system, uni fees are not sufficient to cover costs and yet give students a sense of entitlement (mum and dad paid my fees so where's my job?').

We are really good in this country of doing things badly. Who knew?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

When I last lived in the UK I had a NHS dentist in the North Laine. He had a rather annoying habit of cancelling my appointments and the other noticable thing was that his mood directly correlated with the age of his numerous (always female) assistants....if they were young he was in a good and playful mood....old and he always moaned and told me off for not doing this that and the other regularly enough or correctly.

 

[jackanada]

My kids are all registered with an nhs dentist thanks to the missus putting plenty of effort into it.
Still takes multiple attempts to make an appointment usually several months away and it gets cancelled almost half the time.
Ended up shelling out a monkey to get a tooth extracted for the boy after being on a waiting list for several months and then the referral getting lost, that's for what should have counted as urgent treatment.
So nice of tories to want the rest of our health care like this.

 

[BLOCK F]

I have been with the same dental practice as an NHS patient for 49 years.
They have location once in that time, but are nominally the same practice, albeit split between private and NHS patients and dentists. Am going up to have a new crown fitted this Friday and although I now live 60 miles away from the practice, I am sticking with them.
Wife and three children all have to go private elsewhere.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

As has already been mentioned - they are private businesses not really part of the NHS. I need to be careful here as an NSC member is a dentist who has kindly treated Mrs WS but I do think dentists should be forced to take NHS people.

 

[brightn'ove]

Dentistry in the UK is decades behind. It needs a complete shake up to get us on par with other developed countries.

 

[perseus]

It cost me £600+ with an estimate of a further £900+

 

[beorhthelm]

what i cant fathom is why dentistry is so expensive, when procedures can be done so much cheaper abroad. assume the materials and equipment are universally available, with some quality variation, do our dentists insist only using highest quality/expensive options, get overcharged, or the dentist simply charge (a lot) more for their time? and if so why havent markets brought price down?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

what i cant fathom is why dentistry is so expensive, when procedures can be done so much cheaper abroad.

Same can be said of many products and services.

 

[Boroseagull]

what i cant fathom is why dentistry is so expensive, when procedures can be done so much cheaper abroad. assume the materials and equipment are universally available, with some quality variation, do our dentists insist only using highest quality/expensive options, get overcharged, or the dentist simply charge (a lot) more for their time? and if so why havent markets brought price down?

This is the issue that needs addressing in the UK - cost of procedures. Living in Spain, a fairly civilised country, there is no Health Service dentistry service provided by the state. Everything is private, but the costs are very reasonable and they're is a wide choice of dentists, and dentists here have to qualify as a doctor first before studying dentistry. Even the expensive procedures, implants, crowns bridges etc are a fraction of UK prices, and believe it or not Australian prices. Now why I say this a friend of ours went back to Australia to live in April 2021. For the previous 11 years he had been living in Elvira (Marbella) and had a good local dentist. In Adelaide, SA, last year he had teeth problems that required a serious amount of work. The dentist there gave him an estimate...24,000$AUS!! He managed to obtain the x-rays and had the written estimate so contacted his old dentist in Elvira, sent the x-rays and estimate to him by email and received a costing back .....5,250e!! The work would take 3 weeks, implants etc., so he arranged flights, accommodation etc. and finished the treatments last week. One very happy and richer friend will be travelling back home next week with a big smile on his face.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

When we moved here twenty years ago, the nearest NHS dentist was in Warrington, which is a place you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.

 

[BLOCK F]

This is the issue that needs addressing in the UK - cost of procedures. Living in Spain, a fairly civilised country, there is no Health Service dentistry service provided by the state. Everything is private, but the costs are very reasonable and they're is a wide choice of dentists, and dentists here have to qualify as a doctor first before studying dentistry. Even the expensive procedures, implants, crowns bridges etc are a fraction of UK prices, and believe it or not Australian prices. Now why I say this a friend of ours went back to Australia to live in April 2021. For the previous 11 years he had been living in Elvira (Marbella) and had a good local dentist. In Adelaide, SA, last year he had teeth problems that required a serious amount of work. The dentist there gave him an estimate...24,000$AUS!! He managed to obtain the x-rays and had the written estimate so contacted his old dentist in Elvira, sent the x-rays and estimate to him by email and received a costing back .....5,250e!! The work would take 3 weeks, implants etc., so he arranged flights, accommodation etc. and finished the treatments last week. One very happy and richer friend will be travelling back home next week with a big smile on his face.

Are you sure they have to qualify as doctors before studying dentistry?
I do not think this is correct. As far as I am aware, only Maxillo Facial surgeons, wherever they are, are required to qualify in dentistry and medicine.

 

[Boroseagull]

Are you sure they have to qualify as doctors before studying dentistry?
I do not think this is correct. As far as I am aware, only Maxillo Facial surgeons, wherever they are, are required to qualify in dentistry and medicine.

So I am reliably informed by my local dentist.

 

[Gazwag]

You never see a poor dentist, they could easily give a day a week to nhs and be able to.afford their lifestyle