I still don't get private dental

[Paddy]

The dentist I've had for a while is moving to private work only. I like him so looked into private but I just can't see why anyone would bother. £70 for a check-up or a dental plan for £25 a month which gives you a check-up and 2 hygienist sessions a year. It's in the same practice you just pay 4x as much. I assume you get preferential booking but it's not hard to get an appointment. The plan doesn't cover dental work and if you're NHS you can always go private if you want white fillings or whatever.

Even if I were loaded, I can't see what I gain. If it were a swanky private only practice maybe, but it's not.
People here must have experience, what exactly is the benefit?

It depends on how bad your teeth are. NHS density not fit for purpose and is very poor quality and is not even worth the fees payable. Private in UK is ridiculously expensive. My dentist is in Prague and I have used him for 20 years. His equipment and service is first class.

[ladymuck]

When I moved to that London, I registered with a NHS dentist up the road from me and both the service and quality of the work compared to what I got in backwards West Sussex was terrible. They kept referring me to their private partner practice for tricky jobs they didn't want to do, with dentists who worked part time and would cancel the few appointments they did offer.

I needed a root canal doing and decided to do my own research into dentists that offer that treatment as a speciality and ended up at a private practise an extra 10 minute walk away where they (a) don't push extra treatments on me, (b) treat me like a human being (the receptionists are lovely!), and (c) do a damn good job.

Yes, it costs a heck of a lot more and I don't have a dental plan to cover the cost.

If you have a good NHS dentist then you'd be daft to move to private - they all do elective private work anyway so you get the best of both worlds. If your NHS dentist is moving to private only then you'd have to think about whether you'd get another good NHS dentist elsewhere.

[ladymuck]

It depends on how bad your teeth are. NHS density not fit for purpose and is very poor quality and is not even worth the fees payable. Private in UK is ridiculously expensive. My dentist is in Prague and I have used him for 20 years. His equipment and service is first class.

I've never considered going overseas for any kind of medical treatment, how do you find and assess them? It would be fun to have a weekend break a couple of times a year to coincide with a check up or hygienist appointment.

[d000hg]

It depends on how bad your teeth are. NHS density not fit for purpose and is very poor quality and is not even worth the fees payable. Private in UK is ridiculously expensive. My dentist is in Prague and I have used him for 20 years. His equipment and service is first class.

It's the same dentist doing the same work unless you pay extra (even privately) for white fillings and so on. Similarly the hygenist - same person doing the same stuff you just pay more to book privately. I think you are mistaken.


For major corrective work you could be right but that's typically a vanity job, you should be paying through the teeth(!) for it IMO

[d000hg]

I needed a root canal doing and decided to do my own research into dentists that offer that treatment as a speciality and ended up at a private practise an extra 10 minute walk away where they (a) don't push extra treatments on me, (b) treat me like a human being (the receptionists are lovely!), and (c) do a damn good job.

I had my first RC during lockdown and the chap actually asked if he wanted me to do it, or a referral to a specialist place (microscopes and all that). I was tempted but decided I preferred a known/safe environment as I was quite nervous - plus it was an hour away rather than 10min to drive afterwards
For stuff like that I'd go private assuming I can afford it, but for regular fillings it seems a bit pointless.

[ladymuck]

I had my first RC during lockdown and the chap actually asked if he wanted me to do it, or a referral to a specialist place (microscopes and all that). I was tempted but decided I preferred a known/safe environment as I was quite nervous - plus it was an hour away rather than 10min to drive afterwards
For stuff like that I'd go private assuming I can afford it, but for regular fillings it seems a bit pointless.

I've had two root canals. One on a front tooth done on the NHS in Sussex and that went fine (the nerve was dead so I actually had it done without any anaesthetic!). The second was with all the special equipment and needed some numbing but was far gentler than any filling I've ever had. The crown work was also really good.

When I was with the NHS butchers, they gave me loads of crowns and fillings and in the time since I moved to private all I get after a check up is "you should floss more". Now you could say the NHS had done all the hard work and there's nothing left for the private chaps to do but it seems odd to me that I moved from NHS in Sussex where I barely needed any treatment to NHS in London where suddenly lots of work was needed.

I would stick with the dentist you're comfortable with, even if that means going private. Especially if you're a bit of a nervous patient.

[Paddy]

I've never considered going overseas for any kind of medical treatment, how do you find and assess them? It would be fun to have a weekend break a couple of times a year to coincide with a check up or hygienist appointment.

I will PM you when I have a few minutes free

[NotAllThere]

It used to be the case that if you couldn't find an NHS dentist, the local health authority was obliged to find one for you. Is that still the case?

[SueEllen]

It used to be the case that if you couldn't find an NHS dentist, the local health authority was obliged to find one for you. Is that still the case?

Seems not - https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dent...n-nhs-dentist/

If after contacting several dental surgeries you still cannot find a dentist accepting NHS patients, call NHS England's Customer Contact Centre on 0300 311 2233.

[northernladuk]

Not a chance of getting an NHS spot round here and the ones that do I wouldn't go to anyway. I might be different as I've had a lot of work due to some busted teeth from rugby and wouldn't have trusted the ones offering NHS.

Found a new local place with a young(ish) couple new set up with all the fandago technology. IMO the tech makes a massive difference when you are in there a lot so worth it for me.