Inspired by @Meg’s post here - how much have you spent on dental care over the years?
And do you curse the tories for privatising it!
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I think it’s disgusting, bout typical of the Tories
Everyone should be able to see an NHS and it’s definitely privatisation by the Tories by the back door
They loathe the equality of our NHS and would love to privatise all healthcare
Having said that, I’m extremely lucky, I am still on the books of a n NHS dentist, how much longer before they privatise, who knows?
So I’ve recently paid a about £50 for a protective filling and an x-ray
They will only see you once a year for an NHS check up
I do pay £60 twice a year to see the hygienist for a general polish and a check all is OK. That’s not available on the NHS
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Our NHS dentist has turned private .
It’s wa rubbish anyway but I did and will still pay for the dental hygienist itwice a year .
It’s £74 a time our way .
For dental treatment I willl go to an another private dentist who is very good . If I’m going to pay I will pay for the best .
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NHS dentists ruined my teeth as a child. It’s only when I was at uni that sealing molars was available (on the NHS) and I could have my wisdom teeth sealed so they wouldn’t need fillings. You can no longer have your teeth sealed on the NHS.
In the 70s the NHS approach was to drill out the decay and then drill some more. So I ended up with most of my back teeth filled full of amalgam. This was all down to NHS tariffs which meant the more work NHS dentists did the more they would earn. It’s lucky that I didn’t lose any of those teeth but I’ve since had all the amalgam replaced privately and it’s not straightforward.
It was all pretty normal in the 70s with school friends having a similar volume of work and a mouth of amalgam. One dentist also replaced all the amalgam fillings with more amalgam fillings when I was 17, some of these had only been replaced a year earlier! I had several years of weird symptoms and health issues and it’s probably linked to that. They have now banned amalgam. Rather than health fears it’s due to pollution and saving the environment. On top of this you would have x rays every single time you had a check up. These days they no longer do that. The accumulated radiation is why cancer stats are skewed towards old age.
The financial system which replaced the 70s model was less attractive to dentists and many left the NHS in droves. This was not intended to get rid of dentists but to resolve the issue of overtreatment due to financial incentives. But where financial incentives are missing, so are dentists.
So the Tories are not responsible for privatising NHS dentistry. Tories, Labour and Conlib have reduced the scope of NHS dentistry. So you are limited in materials, cosmetics, etc. if you go for NHS dentistry. This obviously means dentists’ hands are tied when it comes to using the best option for a patient. These dentists are private contractors and they do not have to have an NHS contract. They can do private work. They have invested a great deal in equipment and premises. It’s a highly stressful job and they want to make money. Very few dentists are employed by the NHS and this is nothing new. It’s just the same as the GP model where they are all private contractors. The word “private” is such a red herring.
So the current situation is totally about what motivates dental professionals and in my opinion patient welfare is always at the back of the queue whether you go private or NHS.
The last time I used NHS services I was advised that I needed a root canal and a filling replaced. Both were found to be unnecessary on second opinion. That was 20 years ago. Always get a second opinion - it’s saved me having root canals 3 times now (private dentists are no better than NHS in this respect)
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Quite a lot and quite often. In fact, I’m sitting here waiting until I can make another appointment since I was having toothache over the weekend. In our system, insurance pays for standard treatment. If you want more, you have to pay it out of your own pocket. Just recently my wife was presented with a bill of £9000 which she could reduce to £2000 because she had additional private insurance. A filling usually is £50, seeing the dental hygienist is £60 the first time (partly insurance-covered) in a year and £90 for the second time.
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I have no upper teeth and im not going for dentures ,
after paying over £200 years ago for partial , I didnt enjoy my food with a mouthful of plastic in my mouth ,so use to take them out , only wore them for when i went out .Cosmetic use really
my lower teeth are becoming long in the tooth and wont be long before they fall out .
If I get toothache then i will have a filling or pulled , but im not going for dentures .
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I visit my NHS dentist twice yearly for a check up costing around £25 each time. I get a check up, x-ray (sometimes) and a clean for that price. I’ve been using the same dental practice for many years although the personnel have changed over that time. I can’t remember the last time I had any treatment, which would have been a filling I would think. The dentist always tells me that my dental hygiene is good … whatever that may mean. So, having read the experiences of others on here, I think I am very lucky in not having any gripes about my dentist or the charges.
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I have been visiting a dentist every six months ever since I was 13 years old…The first dentist was a large German Lady who was brilliant! Her father, who was also a dentist, had a practice in another town. So when he became too old to continue she took over his practice and left Doncaster. I also had changed jobs so at 21 I found another dentist closer to my place of work.
I can’t remember paying anything in those days, but at my new dentist it did cost a few quid for a checkup, clean and polish, or a filling.
Mr Hotham [the new dentist] was also very good, and kept my teeth in good nick with the occasional scale and polish, or filling. The cost was spiraling by the 90’s, but teeth are important so I didn’t mind the cost. Even though Mr Hotham was a lot younger than me he retired in 2015… 
Since then there have been a few random dentists caring for my teeth, all of whom were not a patch on Mr Hotham. So in 2020 when covid was doing the rounds, I stopped visiting the dentist. Partly because they stopped doing checkups and were not available, no dentist, and partly because I didn’t like chopping and changing between stand in dentists. 
So I’ve made the decision not to visit a dentist on a regular basis, I shall visit a private dentist if and when I need one. I can’t begin to think how much I have paid out over the years, but I’m sure it has been a considerable amount, but what I save in regular treatments should offset the cost of going private should it be necessary. I have already had the occasion to remove a troublesome tooth myself saving quite a bit of brass…
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It says something, doesn’t it, if you can say that you’ve been able to see a dentist regularly for the best part of your life. Where I grew up there were very few dentists and they mainly extracted teeth, for which they got a bonus, but didn’t treat and preserve them. Their equipment was totally inappropriate. Drills didn’t drill but were grinding a small hole into the tooth generating a stink. Dentists were corrupt preferring those who were able to pay with hard currency. It’s fair to say that there was actually no dental treatment worthy of the name at all. Back then I also had to do dentist hopping as you had to recently. None of them forgot to make me feel unwelcome.
It’s because of this experience that I enjoy a proper dental treatment today.
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did you use pliers or a piece of string and a slammed door?!
Seriously though the need to have regular checkups is only there if your gums need to be monitored or if you have a specific problem. The main problem with not going as you age is gum disease. So I just go to see a hygienist. I once didn’t go for 7 years and didn’t need any work done. It seems sometimes that the more you visit the dentist the more problems you have.
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I am 85 and can’t remember the last time I needed a dentist. I have had two loose teeth recently but I have been able to get them out eventually by myself. I clean my teeth regularly and have no dentures.
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I think I must have had every type of dental issue going over the years. But Dental treatment recently been getting worse and my teeth have suffered as a result. I had a bad upbringing which resulted me in comfort eating sweets when I was young, mixed in with a generous helping of dental fear brought about by the brutal “gas and pull” method of dental “care”
Since then, I have done everything I can to keep my teeth as healthy as possible, but even that has resulting in various abscesses and other problems I have had to deal with. But thanks to NHS inept dental care (Get you in and out the chair as quick as possible) process, I have had teeth go bad because the dentist never bothered to check my fillings correctly else he would have noticed them rotting underneath, which caused me brain-crushing agony for a few days until I paid a someone else to pull the damn thing!
Moving onward to last September when my caring loving dentist decided that one of my rear molars needed a root filling, but because she was running late, she only did half a job and left it - and then decided to leave the practice. So I have half a root filling in my mouth, covered in amalgam and there is no one available to finish it off. Today, I went for a checkup, the first in many months (no dentist available) and reminded them about this hole in my head that needs filling. “We’ll be in touch when we get someone in able to do it”.
Something has gone seriously wrong with NHS dentistry and it was time this was dealt with.
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Check book dentistry was exactly the reason I have been a private patient for many years. My private dentist only undertakes invasive work when it’s necessary and my regular visits ensure that is a rarity.
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I’m lucky, never needed much dental work done, and I’ve got an NHS dentist locally. I go there from time to time. I had a few fillings as a child, I remember it clearly, they used to gas us!
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I go to a private dentist
I’ve got denplan.
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We have dental insurance so not much.
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That’s disgraceful. I didn’t think they were still allowed to use amalgam.
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I think I just took it for granted Dachs, so now it seems so unfair to more or less make everyone seek out a private dentist or take out some sort of insurance. I suppose in a capitalist world, everything has a price. No such thing as a free lunch…
I think I might buy a rubber boat and enter Britain illegally, in that way I’ll get free NHS, Dentistry, Lodgings in a plush hotel, and a few quid each week to spend on beer.
I can tell you exactly, my dental costs for the last 12 months are $855 (£430)
That is four visits - one routine check up which cost $150 including Xray, scaling, fluoride etc
The most expensive visit was for a couple of fillings and a replacement filling which cost $305 (£150)
Only a couples of weeks ago, I had a Check-up, X-Ray, Deep Clean and a small filling and was shocked at the bill of £350.00.