Dentists - wot a rip off

axisus

1 hour treatment cost me £500

That's a frikkin serious hourly rate. Private, no NHS dentists around here. I know that they have some expensive kit, but I didn't realise that they had to pay it off in one week.

Bridgehouse

You've seen the recent PRS price hikes, right?

richh

That is seriously expensive!  That must have been something more than your annual checkup then?

amarok1971

hope there was a blowjob in that too, at the very least a handjob 

Bygone_Tones

He did come out looking like this though:

Kilgore

Bloody hell, what did you have done, new gnashers made from Unicorn horn?

Ravenous

I think I paid around that for a gold cap on a damaged molar. (Well over a decade ago though.)

So it depends on how much treatment you had.

Be glad you didn't go to one of the cheap Chinese fake dentists...

ronnyb

amarok1971 said:

hope there was a blowjob in that too, at the very least a handjob 

Linda Lovelace's dentist. Nicest set of teeth he'd ever come across.

underdog

It's the work before your appointment that costs the money, the making of a false tooth or crown is a very expensive process.

notanon

Begs the question what would you do if you were living hand to mouth (excuse the pun). Continued austerity means it will get worse before it gets better.

spark240

Good job he didn't do your ears at the same time....could have racked up 1K

midlifecrisis

notanon said:

Begs the question what would you do if you were living hand to mouth (excuse the pun). Continued austerity means it will get worse before it gets better.

apparently health figures say less than half of adults regularly go to a dentist. im fortunate we have NHS dentist here , i probably wouldnt be able to afford private.

ronnyb

axisus said:

1 hour treatment cost me £500

That's a frikkin serious hourly rate. Private, no NHS dentists around here. I know that they have some expensive kit, but I didn't realise that they had to pay it off in one week.

So did you grit your teeth and pay up?

77ric

Highly skilled, highly and expensively educated, expensive equipment, skilled and well trained nursing staff, no doubt expensive public liability insurance etc, etc. 

Not it really surprising that their services come at a cost. You could of course go cheap, I’d be more than happy to fix your tooth issue for £100, I mean it will be with a hammer and chisel, no anaesthetic, and no promises I’ll get the correct tooth or make the situation worse. But you pay for what you get. 

Sporky

My dear old mum was a dentist - mostly NHS. She lost money on most NHS stuff but felt she had a duty to do it. The private stuff she did paid for the NHS stuff.

Once you've paid for the surgery, the nurse, the lab time, the insurance, the ongoing CPD and so on there's not much left.

axisus

I know a dentist, a pal of mine that I see in the mornings at the swimming pool. On one hand they pay out a lot on courses, he's recently forked out £10k, on the other hand he built an entire surgery on the side of his house so plenty of cash knocking about!

57Deluxe

is no wonder that the Brits are seen as having bad teeth by the rest of Europe...

fields5069

It is beyond absurd, to me, that teeth and eyes are not included in "free at the point of use" treatment.

TheBigDipper

fields5069 said:

It is beyond absurd, to me, that teeth and eyes are not included in "free at the point of use" treatment.

You're not wrong. Dentists moved away from working for the NHS when the way the government decided to pay them changed and many dentists no longer felt it was worthwhile to do the work. The government narrative would be to try and convince us the dentists were being greedy. It works in other areas. 

For the last 30 years I've paid £25/month into Denplan so I can get decent proactive dental care from a good dentist. The only extras I've ever paid on top of that was the one time I needed a gold crown and I paid for the lab work to make it. I don't like paying the money, but I do want to keep my own teeth for as long as possible. So far, one crown excepted, it has worked - at  a cost. 

CabbageCat

I'm not sure what the benefits of a dental plan are. I have one through work but I still see the same NHS dentist (who also does private work, as they all do as far as I can tell). It still costs a fortune if I need anything significant to be done.

I guess dentistry is outside the funded scope of the NHS because if all non-essential procedures were free the country would undergo many, many more of them. And it would cost an absolute fortune. It could be argued that it's worth it, of course, but I imagine some of the more libertarian leaners would resent paying extra tax to give a stranger a prettier smile.

TheBigDipper

CabbageCat said:

I'm not sure what the benefits of a dental plan are. I have one through work but I still see the same NHS dentist (who also does private work, as they all do as far as I can tell). It still costs a fortune if I need anything significant to be done.

I guess dentistry is outside the funded scope of the NHS because if all non-essential procedures were free the country would undergo many, many more of them. And it would cost an absolute fortune. It could be argued that it's worth it, of course, but I imagine some of the more libertarian leaners would resent paying extra tax to give a stranger a prettier smile.

@CabbageCat ;I can only tell you about my plan - which isn't a work-related benefit, I just went for it after my second extraction at the age of 25. My understanding is this (and any dentists out there please come in and contribute if you can stop playing your genuine '59 Les Pauls :-) ) 

The NHS pays dentists for reactive work - fixing problems rather than preventing them. They pay for the cheapest remedial procedure. So, a tooth that might be saved with a long drawn-out filling procedure that has no guarantee of success will be extracted instead. 

Under my plan, I see the hygienist every six months and the dentist every six months - three months between visits. That gives me four descale, clean and polish sessions to help me keep my teeth a bit longer. The dentist doesn't get paid any more for those times where remedial work is needed, so the best way of making money out of me is to proactively help me keep my teeth in decent shape so he/she never has to do anything difficult or expensive (for them) at no extra charge (for me). My experience is that this approach works. It also means that my dentist does try that long drawn out process to save a tooth because they're not paid on a piecework basis. Instead, I'm paying a retainer. 

The plan doesn't cover me for orthodontistry - cosmetic work, straightening crooked teeth, whitening, etc. It's just about dental health and keeping the teeth you grew yourself.