27 August 2010
An interesting article this week in the Daily Mail about different treatment plans recommended by different dentists and prices in dental practices. A "mystery shopper" went to four different dentists and surprise surprise found the cost and the work varied according to the dentist.
Why would this be the case? It’s because the NHS dentist might recommend the absolute basic amount of work needed to save your teeth, and the high ranking cosmetic dentist might recommend a beautiful new set of crowns all straight, white and gleaming, to restore your mouth to a Hollywood level. They obviously aren’t going to cost the same. Think of a car – no way would a Bentley and a mini cost the same amount.
Why does a crown cost more at one dentist than another dentist? It’s because the materials they are made from and the lab that is used by the dentist are not the same. A basic porcelain fused to metal crown that an NHS dentist uses is a world apart from a high level beautiful porcelain crown which has been made in a top class lab. So crowns aren’t the same price because the materials aren’t the same. Guess which one is going to look the most natural.
What else pushes the price up? The equipment a dentist has. The NHS might have the basic equipment needed to do the job, but the cosmetic dentist might have invested in state of the art equipment.
7 August 2010
NHS dental services leaflet – how can you get NHS dental treatment – print this leaflet
- How to find an NHS dentist
- Free NHS dental treatment – who is eligible
- Charging bands
7 August 2010
If you want to check your NHS dentist’s fees then print this sheet and take it with you to your dental appointment. Always ask for a written treatment plan.
7 August 2010
Email received from a concerned patient
“Please could you give me some advice about a problem that my fiancé is having with his dentures.
18 months ago my fiancé had a new set of dentures made. He had his upper teeth removed and had been wearing an immediate denture up to this point. He got on fine with the immediate denture apart from being getting slightly loose as you would expect, but he used a fixative and was fine.
The dentist at the practice had changed (same chain of owners) and he had another set made – expecting them to be a better fit. They were rocking a bit at the back and digging into the side of his sulcus when he ate. The dentist said that he would get used to them and it was because they were new. My fiancé then went to Australia for 6 months. He found that he had to wear the fixative to keep them up but just got on with it.
Three months ago he noticed a crack in the palate of his dentures. He took the dentures back to the dentist (again a different one, but still same owners). The dentist tried to charge him £16.00 for the repair. I told him to point out that denture repairs were free through N.H.S dentists and after pointing this out to the practice – he wasn’t charged. He also requested a soft re-line to try and make them fit better. The dentist said the re-line and the repair would be done together and that the re-line would cost him a band 2 charge of 40 something pound.
The dentures were duly sent off to the lab. When they came back he was given a cursory check and sent away with them. It didn’t look like they had been repaired very well (the crack was still visible) and it looked like the lab had just put the re-line on top. The crack has now deepened to almost all the way through and the dentures are unwearable. He has had to go back to wearing the old immediate dentures.
He is a pensioner and seems to have paid 198.00 pounds for a pair of dentures that he cannot wear. He is deaf so I am going back with him next week. I myself am a dental nurse at he BDH, and as he doesn’t complain I didn’t really know what was going on. ( we do not live together). In my opinion the denture didn’t fit properly in the first place which has caused them to crack almost in half.
I would like to know before I go what would be reasonable to ask the dentist to do. I do hope you can advise me in this matter. He is so miserable about the whole situation.”
8 July 2010
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) have been busy rejecting claims that health care and food manufacturers have up until now have been free to put on packaging. So along with 80% of the products put forward to the EFSA, sugar free chewing gum has been rejected – apparantly it does not reduce dental plaque. Read the full article here
27 June 2010
A very interesting article in the Guardian yesterday "British dentistry is in a painful state" written by Patrick Collinson. He details his experiences wading through several dentists in London and Edinburgh in an effort to get an NHS dentist to deal with his painful tooth which needed root canal treatment.
So one has to question – do dental patients get better advice and treatment in Scotland or was it just a coincidence that the Edinburgh dentist gave the reporter the correct advice and was able to immediately sort out some initial treatment for him. I’m inclined to think this was no coincidence. What do you think?
See the article here
21 June 2010
Email received from a concerned patient
“I have recently signed up for NHS work, I need two white fillings – which I know are not covered by the NHS charges – but one side tooth has cracked, it already had a root canal filling from years ago, and is not suitable for filling. I have been told I need a crown – but it will cost me £400+.”
“My dental practice has some leaflets that suggest some crown work IS covered by the NHS, since this work is not cosmetic but necessary, can you advise me of the situation and whether this crown can be covered NHS work. the Tooth is on the right hand side, four teeth in from the front tooth, so it shows when I smile.”
31 March 2010
Latest research from the Journal of Acupuncture in Medicine says that dental phobias can be overcome by having acupuncture needles placed in specific points on the vertex of the head (GV20 and EX6 which are a group of extra points surrounding GV20), but further trials are needed. Some seriously phobic and petrified patients were able to undertake dental treatment after being "calmed down" by the acupuncture.
So maybe dental sedation by traditional methods will eventually be a thing of the past.
29 March 2010
It looks like dental care is taking a nosedive in Ireland. According to the Irish Independent newspaper dental patients in Ireland will have to have teeth extracted rather than properly repaired with fillings and root canal work because of dental funding cuts. Are we going back to the dark ages? It is ridiculous to consider pulling out teeth rather than repairing them properly with fillings, crowns and root canal work.
Is the situation any better here in the UK? We can only hope the proposed new dental contracts being piloted will make it worthwhile for dentists to undertake NHS dental work again. If you get the same payment for extracting a tooth, which might take seconds, as you get for spending hours doing root canal work which is the most cost effective option for the dentist?
19 March 2010
For anyone wondering what a dental abscess is, why you get dental abscesses, and the treatments available, have a look at this excellent NHS video which has just been added to the NHS Choices website. The NHS Choices website is an excellent resource and explains many different procedures, some in video form. The latest videos have really good animation compared with some of the older ones.
