Rip Off Dental Costs

[BOB]

Hi Folks
Just Been To The Dentist This Afternoon The Third Visit For A Small Prob With A Tooth One Root Filling 2 X Rays Over A 3 Week Period Total Cost £184 Plus I Pay £10 A Month To Him Semi Private You See Rip Off Time As You Cant Get A Nhs Dentist In This Area For Miles Around Any One Else With Any Nightmare Dental Stories

[janet]

Antley Villa will be private at the start of October, i've managed to get an appointment for a checkup in september this will be my last nhs visit. Then it's up the swanne river.I cannot afford private treatment as i'm not working and if i was i would'nt want to pay the overpriced fees.

[grego]

Just about to start looking for another Dentist, unfortunately it looks like I'm going to have to go private, as I cant register my daughter unless I'm also a patient, I believe this to be the case anyway. I think the cost of dentistry is disgusting its hardly suprising that most people just dont bother going.

[Bazf]

I used to actually travel to the UK for my Dental work as it was cheaper with an air ticket and the UK price then it was in the states. Probably still is but I now have dental insurance so I save a little money but your procedure that you just had with insurance in the states would have cost just short of $1000 or a quick 500quid oh yea paid up front claim it back so give the UK Draculas about 3yr and they will be charging the same.

[Ifty]

somethin needs to be done if we pay NHS then we should get cover or if private then we should get reduced payment into NHS for what we dont get out. Like why are we paying for someting we dont get? If we all have to have private health ins and private pension and pay dentist what the hell is the NHS for?

[lettie]

The NHS is for far more than Dentistry Ifty. I agree that it's a disgusting situation regarding NHS Dentists at the moment and some of the surgeries do provide private insurance plans which looking at the one I was recently shown, is nothing more than a rip off. Dentistry is only a miniscule part of the NHS and I know that an organisation as large as the NHS will never be perfect, but bear in mind that if you have had your life saved, baby delivered, elective operation, physio, occupational therapy, psychiatric help to name but a few, and you have not had to whip out your cheque book/credit card prior to treatment you can consider yourself to be very lucky. Many other countries are not so fortunate.

[Lampman]

The average Dentist practise earns £100,000 per year from the NHS,from this some £46,000 is deducted for running the business.Then on top of this comes the private income,considering this you would think the UK would have a surplus of Dentist not a shortage.

[Caz]

I've just had my last NHS appointment with a practice thats going private - apparently the main reason being that patients will no longer need to register, and they reckon this is going to cause mayhem at the surgery

I can take out their payment plan at £10 per month, but that only covers check ups polishes and a couple of Xrays. If I need any treatment I get a reduction of 20%.

I don't normally pay for my dental treatment due to my circumstances, and have a bridge that is likely to cause problems, so heaven knows what that might cost. It cost £35 to have it cleaned (sandblasted- which has to be done before they fix it) on the NHS even though they replaced it free

Thing is if you go on this plan any children you have under 18 get their treatment free, so i feel like I am being a bad parent if I don't go on this plan and they are left without a dentist.

[Busman747]

as you probably know, I have recently moved up from the south and I also have a morbid fear of dentists. After weeks of dental pain, I shopped around only to find that no one would accept me as an NHS patient even though I am new to the area.
I ended up with the emergency dentist at Accie general hospital who gave me some antibiotics, and waved me a cheerful goodbye by saying that the infection would return in a few weeks if I did not find a dentist!!

The good news is that I found one but the bad news is that they wanted almost £300-00 up front! At least that persuaded me to complete my treatment instead of sticking my head in the sand and hoping that the infection would mysteriously dissapear, but it did leave me wondering what would have happened if I was unemployed or didn't have the money in the bank.
Does anyone know how the pensioners will be charged?

[janet]

I am on incapacity benefit i have to pay to see a private dentist so i would assume that pensioners will be the same.

[Lampman]

Well just returned from the dentist,£100+ for two Xrays and one filling.Would not be so bad if afore mentioned tooth didn't resemble one of Mike Tysons!
Coincidently I read today that 9 out of 10 dentist are now refusing patients NHS treatment,I don't know if this is caused by greedy dentist or inept Government.
Nevertheless Mr.Blair will cop for the blame come the elections!