Your charges will depend on the treatment you need to keep your mouth, gums and teeth healthy. You will only ever be asked to pay one charge for each complete course [...]]]> The following poster "NHS dental charges from 1 April 2011" describes the charge you will pay for your NHS dental treatment.

Your charges will depend on the treatment you need to keep your mouth, gums and teeth healthy. You will only ever be asked to pay one charge for each complete course of treatment, even if you need to visit your dentist more than once to finish it – either Band 1, Band 2 or Band 3. If you have to be referred to another dentist for another, separate course of treatment, you can expect a second charge. Some minor treatments, including having stitches removed or repair to dentures (if they can be mended), are free.

Unless of course you live in Wales where the charges [...]]]> NHS dental charges to increase on 1 April 2011

Unless of course you live in Wales where the charges are frozen at 2006 levels and are Band 1 £12, Band 2 £39 and Band 3 £177. NHS dental patients in Scotland pay 80% of the NHS dental treatment fee.

“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. [...]]]> 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.”

“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 [...]]]> 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.”

“I hope that you don’t mind that I have sent you this email, but I really didn’t know who to ask about this, and would really appreciate your advice about something, please. Excuse me that it is a bit long-winded, but I will endeavour [...]]]> Email received from a concerned dental patient

“I hope that you don’t mind that I have sent you this email, but I really didn’t know who to ask about this, and would really appreciate your advice about something, please. Excuse me that it is a bit long-winded, but I will endeavour to explain my situation.

I am a family carer, and I care for 3 members of my family; for this reason, it is often quite difficult to put myself first, even when it comes to pre-booked appointments. I am an NHS patient and, until recently, I was undergoing treatment between my Dentist and the Hospital, as I am suffering drastic bone loss in my gums, and I am slowly losing my teeth. Unfortunately, due to my role as a carer I have had to cancel dental appointments on a few occasions, as something has happened with one of the people who I care for, where they have been unwell, etc. As I don’t have anyone to turn to for support at these times, I have had no alternative but to put whatever I have to do for myself on hold. As I cannot plan ahead for unforeseeable events like this, on two of the occasions, I have only been able to give them two and a half hours notice of cancellation.

Ultimately, I recently received a letter from my dental practice saying that they were ‘deregistering’ me for missing appointments, to make way for new patients. They argued that they cannot be expected to accept 2 hours notice, as it was not enough time to fit anyone else in the slot. As I already suffer with stress and anxiety, this has only added to my worries. I emailed the Practice Manager, explaining that I am a carer, but they wrote back to me basically saying that they are a ‘busy practice’ and they are not changing their mind.

I feel very strongly that I am being discriminated against because I am doing the job of being a carer, and have to put others before myself. I am at a real loss now as to what to do, because a temporary dental prosthesis has already been made for me, which was supposed to be fitted so that the hospital could see how I tolerate it (I suffer with globus hystericus) so that they could cut back on it’s size. Unfortunately, I now can’t go back to see my own Dentist, so don’t know what to do now!! Therefore, any advice that you could give me as to what, if anything, I can do about this (ie. If I can make a complaint to anyone) would be very much appreciated.

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Many thanks”