NHS Dentists

Ian

Ian

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Is anyone here lucky enough to have a good NHS dentist? I keep seeing things in the news about people driving 2 hours to see an NHS dentist as there are none in the local area.

Since I've moved away from home to uni, I haven't been able to get a good NHS dentist so I went to a private one (its not expensive for a checkup twice a year thankfully! Although if I need anything done it could be :eek:).

The difference is quite significant, so much so I even asked the dentist why my checkup lasted for 20 mins and was not just a 2 min jobbie like my last dentist, as they pointed things out (like my wisdom teeth causing problems) that my other one ignored.

Anyway - he said that the NHS dentists don't get enough money, thats why things aren't as good and people have problems finding one...

...but I've just read this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4392528.stm

On average, a full-time dentist with high commitment to the NHS will earn around £80,000 per year
Click to expand...

Top NHS dentists earn £250K/year, and average ones earn £80K/year!? I'd give my two front teeth to earn that!

There must be more to this story surely, as I can't imagine £80,000 isn't enough - or is it simply supply and demand, and private practices pay more (therefore less NHS)?
 
dentist

Well you have started a very interesting thread here Ian!!

Well my dentist took on a large amount of patients when the practice was set up, over 7,000+. The catchment area was massive to say the least, then last year it was announced they had decided not to treat NHS punters anymore.

Instead we could all sign up for dental insurance with dent plan. We would have an inspection of our teeth from the dentist, who would then decided which band of monthly payment we should be in, from £20 to £50. Of course the dentist gets a fee from dent plan to do the inspection and as 99% have signed up to it (they will treat under 1% through the NHS, but this will stop eventually) a nice little windfall, as well as guaranteed income when treating the humble punter.

The 2 partners are already on £100k+ each and with this new windfall can expect £200+ for doing 4 days a week.:mad:
 
If this takes off I can say that people health in this country will only deteriorate more. What if like hundreds of thousands of other you are unemployed and need treatment but have no transport?

The average income say in my area for an unemployed person is say £130 - £140pw if you are lucky. That is including Income support/Rent and council tax

Not much to spare as you have to pay all you bills utilities and food clothing costs. So what about health? Is this goning to be incorporated into Doctors surgeries aswell? WTF are we paying National insurance if we cant get subsidised dental care.

My opinion OUTRAGEOUS!!!!
 
I have always been able to obtain a NHS dentist, at the moment I am with
James P.M.E. He is Undoubtedly the best dentist I have ever been attended buy:thumb: [14Years]> I still have all my own teeth:D and at 61 years young not bad aye:D Yes I can still open a beer bottle with them Nash Nash:eek:
:)


James P.M.E
17, Sketty Rd, Swansea, West Glamorgan SA2 0EU:thumb:
 
& there's the issue of quality & do you get what you pay for?

Few years ago I needed a root canal done pretty urgently & so went to a private dentist. One extreemly empty bank account later I went back & mentioned that it was still EXTREEMLY painful... & shouldn't it be starting to ease off a bit by now. I was told, rather abruptly, to come back in a week as the dentist was fully booked out until then.
I'm not fond of pain so, as it worsened, I decided to go to the Dent school, where baby dentists get to practice on passing poor-people (such as myself). Most dental work is free there & they're great for check-ups & the like, but I hadn't fancied having my Root canal done by a student so I'd opted for the private Dentist as I said.

The Baby dentist took one look & called in the specialist.
They tried to re-do the root canal, seems the first dentist had missed one of the roots, leaving it to literally rot. I saw the specialist a number of times over a period of about a year & he tried very hard to save the tooth, but the damage to the tooth itself, & the bone in the jaw, was too great. One time I went in there I hadn't eaten or slept for 3 days because the pain was so bad. When he found out ( I went all woozy in the waiting room after he'd treated me... very embarassing) He personally (He was the head of Department) went out & bought me a museli bar while he had the assistant give me some orange juice. He wouldn't even let me pay for the bar.

In the end I had to give in & he pulled the tooth. I should've done so ages earlier I suppose, but I am a stubborn b*tch. Specialist work at the dent school is subsidised, but it is not free & the work they were doing (they had to drill out the original root canal from within each root, without breaking the tooth, before they could even start the new root canal. This process took several apointments) was very delicate & very time consuming. His final bill was less than half of his original quote & he had seen me many more times than expected. He saw me personally about 15 times most of the appointments were more than an hour long. His total bill was less than twice the bill of the private dentist for one appointment.

I've gone to the dent school ever since & recomended it to friends. No one that I know has had anything but the best service & quality of treatment from them. Even when being treated by the students.

So do you get what you pay for? :rolleyes:

Dentists are like Doctors. Hard to find a good one, but when you do, stick with them.
 
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I can think of a few medical professionals I could charge with malpractice, however the one time I did try to file a complaint the nurse involved lied so creatively & credibly on her response that the hospital dropped all charges despite the fact that her claims were at complete odds with the medical records.

If whoever was doing the investigating had even looked at my medical records they would've known that she was talking a load of ...pre-owned curry. It was a farce. & I certainly couldn't afford the lawyers to take it to court. So no malpractice suit for the dentist. I think maybe mucks's hammer might've been more effective :rolleyes:
 
Wow... that sucks...

I had a tooth pulled once when i were a nipper... it took the funny chinese man in a shed 8 seconds.
 
christopherpostill said:
Wow... that sucks...

I had a tooth pulled once when i were a nipper... it took the funny chinese man in a shed 8 seconds.
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LOL, wish i had a shed like that :D This one was so brittle by the time I finally let them pull it that it shattered & they spent ages picking tiny shards of tooth out of my upper jaw. But yeah, it sucks real good now :p gimmie a straw & I can slurp up a milkshake with all teeth clenched:D
 
bite now

I once bit a dentist years ago when i was a young child, nearly 20 years later i met his daughter through work, we got talking she told me her Dad was a dentist in a certain town up north, i told her my story, she laughed and then introduced me to her Dad!! I nearly pi55ed myself, he turned out to be a really nice bloke.......................... and then showed me a small scar on his hand!!!!!
 
ROFL, can't remember dentristry ever being listed as a high risk career :rolleyes:
 
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