[Closed] Private Dentist

I pay £18/month for a check-up and hygienist twice a year, and that covers any treatment required with the exception of implants. I don't think it's particularly good value for money (since I've not needed any treatment and the last check-up took three minutes), but it does motivate me to book the appointments and go.

Been private for years, thought about Denplan but never bothered, probably evens out in the end. £30 ish for a checkup twice a year, hygienist once which is £40-50 I think. Had 3 old fillings replaced over the last couple of years which stung a bit!

Are you sure that covers treatment?

I have denplan that is £18 a month and covers check ups, hygienist appts and a discount on treatment.

It’s more expensive than NHS but my experience of the nhs dentistry has been pretty poor. at least now I can get seen and treated properly.

Glad you asked. Similar situation with our old NHS dentist over 200miles away. We're looking at either paying one offs each time for check up, initially £40 each, then £25 each after that, or I think it started at £14ppm.

Still not decide what to do as me and my wife are fine for now AFAIK, but our son was getting specialist treatment we no longer have access too

Naive I know, but I had no idea how crap it's got.

In the same boat as you, having been binned by my NHS dentist for not going enough. Failed to find any other NhS dentists locally so ended up going to the local BUPA.
I'm a bupa essentials patient, which appears to be kind of pay as you go, with no monthly charges etc. The costs of various treatments are explained on the tarrif and don't seem to be eyewateringly expensive. It is more than NHS though.
I've only been once, and it seemed about as ok as going to the dentist ever is!

Been private for years; had poor teeth as a teenager and decided to start looking after them in my mid to late twenties.

I pay £25/month but that includes four hygienist appointments and two full check-ups a year with the dentist, including x-rays. They do have me on a more regular schedule as I have underlying health conditions. The service is excellent, I'm not the most relaxed when it comes to injections and the drill, so money well spent.

My dentist in letchworth is NHS and I'm an NHS patient with them but they give you the option of private for each treatment.

So checkups are 20 quid or whatever

Then you can have a cheap filling on NHS or a much better material/quality one as private option. But you just do it all through them it's super easy

Same with root canal, she offered me NHS one (her doing it as a NHS dentist - basic and wouldn't last very long, her doing it as private with the best materials, but still rudimentary because she's 'just' a dentist - no microscopes etc, or referral to an endodontist, with the best materials and practices etc to in theory make the tooth last significantly longer)

The choice is nice I guess!

I go private, initially it was to get an implant but I carried on going for normal check ups afterwards as I way preferred it. I pay similar to the prices above, £50 ish for hygienist and a bit less for check up, I don't know what fillings etc cost but I know an implant isn't cheap!

I have no Denplan whatever insurance with my private dentist.

Can't be arsed to go NHS because most dentists would just give me the excuse etc as if I am begging to get "free" service. I rather eat less than to get the "free" service as saving few quids is not here nor there.

My current price.

Hygienist - every 6 months from £30 to £47 depending on how much needs to be done. Just had mine done on Wed after two years lock down absence and was charged £46 (I smoke). Normally is around £35.

Normal dental check every 6 months £35 per check. If something needs to be done then the price will be slightly more depending on the filling but inclusive of the check.

Repair/filling from £35 onward. Had a 1/4 broken tooth recently and was charged £37 to fix it. Nothing complicated but patching up. The most I paid was around £58 for a rather large filling. Extraction cost me less than £70 I think (that's how I got to know my dentist several years ago because all other dentists did not do a good job and at that time I was in agony).

p/s: Normal checks (nothing needs doing but a quick check and chat) and hygienist combine every 6 months is around £58 for some reasons.

Oh ya ... my dentist is excellent and apparent top in the country for implant/cosmetic related and he is also the top consultant at the hospital.

You can pretty much double the price to go private, but I kinda have to go private as I have a phobia and can't cope with dodgy dentists. Going private you can pick and choose who you use, but you pay for the privelidge.

My dentist kicked me out as he was going Private only, so I just pay to see the hygienest every 6 months as that's the value add bit (IMO). I'm not that fussed about the dentist bit.

Hygienist – every 6 months from £30 to £47 depending on how much needs to be done. Just had mine done on Wed after two years lock down absence and was charged £46 (I smoke). Normally is around £35.

That's cheap, I was paying £50 per visit pre Covid, then something like £97 a visit mid Covid (extra PPE and they had to leave the room empty for 30 mins after each appt) and it seems to have gone back down to about £60 when I last went in December.

Edit Cambridge pricing though, everything costs London prices.

You can pretty much double the price to go private, but I kinda have to go private as I have a phobia and can’t cope with dodgy dentists. Going private you can pick and choose who you use, but you pay for the privelidge.

I have a phobia too of dodgy dentists after the agony I experienced few years back.

Yes, I can choose now and all I need to do is show my money. LOL!

That’s cheap, I was paying £50 per visit pre Covid, then something like £97 a visit mid Covid (extra PPE and they had to leave the room empty for 30 mins after each appt) and it seems to have gone back down to about £60 when I last went in December.

Edit Cambridge pricing though, everything costs London prices.

I am in the North East so not as prosperous or rich as London.

However, I have seen people traveled from South just to get implant with my dentist because he is good. Amongst the top in the industry and he is a proper Dr (with a PhD! LOL!)

Are you sure that covers treatment?

I've just had a read of the policy document and it's very contradictory. I pay £18/month which includes a slight premium for supplementary insurance, which I thought covered treatment.

On reflection I'm not so sure that it does. They don't define "dental injury", so that's a get-out. On one page they list the amount they'll pay for work and say that this can be at your usual dentist, and then on the next page specifically exclude this.

Might give them a call tomorrow.

Edit: all current plans include the Supplementary Insurance. Still don't know if it actually covers treatment.

Wow I wish I didn't live in the home counties. Pretty sure my fillings were 225 each !

Maybe I should start haggling

It's a very reasonable cost for private surgery and the significant equipment and attached expense and expertise etc though tbf, I don't expect my clients to question my costs...!

She's been brilliant with after service though. Anything that needs sorting or changing, even months on, is covered/sorted free of charge and very rapidly which I appreciate

Pretty sure my fillings were 225 each !

That sounds more like a root filling/root canal than a regular filling, (a bigger job) if my private dentist is anything to go by.

Dunno what a regular 'NHS' filling costs, I'd guess about £80 max.

My NHS dentist is £80 per filling but if you need more than one he'll give you a discount. Got air abrasion last time instead of scrapy scrapy. That was fun.

includes a slight premium for supplementary insurance, which I thought covered treatment.

if it’s anything like denplan, your covered for emergency work, ie patch you up with a temporary filling and out of hours work. Any more and your paying the going rate.

I’ve just paid ~£500ish for a molar crown, but he’s knocked off the cost of the failed filling that I had done 6 months ago.

Just paid £300 to have a wisdom tooth out privately, NW Kent so everything is London prices.

In Newcastle my dentist is around £20 per month. It's insurance.

That gets me two check ups and two hygienist sessions a year. Treatments are extra. I paid somewhere in the region of £100 for a filling. I've had two root canals and crowns done. They were around £1000 each all in.

If I could find a good NHS dentist I would consider it. I ended up going private after a botched filling that failed and the repair being just as bad (that was root canal number 1). At that point I basically found the best dentist I could which came at a premium.

Final straw for me was waiting a over a month for an ‘emergency’ appointment, waited nearly an hour past the time and when I finally saw the dentist he looked at it for 30s, shrugged and said it was too late to do anything about it that day and I’d have to make another appointment. Next available was 3 weeks later.

I moved to the private practice down the road the next day.

I'm on a hybrid, it's private treatment but NHS prices

Very swift and efficient, check up and hygienist cost me c£26 at the last visit, go every six months

Pretty sure my fillings were 225 each !

That sounds more like a root filling/root canal than a regular filling, (a bigger job) if my private dentist is anything to go by.

I wish. Root canal for premolar (only one root) was 600 + 100 consultation at endodontist, then 400-ish for inlay back at dentist. They must charge a lot more in the south. Us mugs pay it what choice is there!

My daughter's been on free (NHS) treatment at the same dentist as my wife (private) but turns 18 in a couple of weeks. I understand that 18 y.o's continue to get free treatment while in qualifying full time education, but what does 'qualifying' mean? Until she's finished at secondary school, or for the next year until she turns 19, as she's going to go to University in all likelihood.

Mehh, you're not missing out on much.

My recent experience of NHS dentistry is they can do the checkup, do fillings, and they can pull teeth out*, but anything in between is considered too much work relative to what the NHS will pay for it. So while in theory, they should offer a root canal, in reality it's for front teeth only as anything else is too much.

*well, they manage half a tooth, 12 months on I'm still waiting for an appointment to have the rest of it removed.

My daughter’s been on free (NHS) treatment at the same dentist as my wife (private) but turns 18 in a couple of weeks. I understand that 18 y.o’s continue to get free treatment while in qualifying full time education, but what does ‘qualifying’ mean? Until she’s finished at secondary school, or for the next year until she turns 19, as she’s going to go to University in all likelihood.

Assuming nothing's changed it includes uni.

Well i believe dentistry students can apply for a bursary from the NHS, which amounts to £20 or 30K.

If they won't undertake NHS work, then that bursary should be discontinued.

Dentistry is quite a confused picture, but in essentially like most things in life, you get what you pay for. The NHS is a fantastic institution but it offers only basic health care when it comes to looking after your teeth. Private dental care comes in different forms around the country but are usually on a monthly plan basis, where you will be assessed on the health of your teeth first and then put on the appropriate plan which usually covers you for 2 check ups per year, all extra work you pay for on top. The quality of materials used is always far greater giving you an overall healthier mouth, private care also has the added bonus of offering emergency treatment and insurance benefits.

Well i believe dentistry students can apply for a bursary from the NHS, which amounts to £20 or 30K.

If they won’t undertake NHS work, then that bursary should be discontinued.

Just FYI, most dental students get nowhere near that amount and it is targeted at allowing those from less well off backgrounds being able to access a 5 year university course.

Almost every UK graduating dentist works for the NHS full time for at least a year after qualifying. The value of the work they do to the NHS that year is in the region of 70k

Contrary to popular belief, the percentage of UK general dentists that do no NHS work is actually pretty small although it is increasing.

My Dentist is putting pressure on us to 'go private'.

I think some of them are acting very shady, I hadn't seen mine for nearly 2 years, it was only after I made an enquiry for a Bridge that lo and behold they had a space for an NHS check-up for me. They cite "because Covid" as the reason for massively reducing the amount of NHS patients they see, but as far as I can tell, apart from the masks we were all wearing, it was exactly the same as before. Check up was quick and uneventful - got a quote for £950 for the bridge, I wouldn't expect the NHS to pay for a cosmetic bridge for me.

I was then introduced the the 'Practice Manager', it takes one to know one, but she was a Sales Manager and I enjoyed a 20 mins pitch from my Dentist (who has no time to see patients) and the Practice/Sales Manager about "going on the plan".

Like Flaperon it's vague to say the least, but once you cut through the BS you pay them £18 a month, in return you get a check up and 2 hygienist visits. £216 a year, however if I just became private the check-up £41 and the 2 hygienist visits £65 a go, would be £171? It does also include 10% of there treatment prices, where a filling cost "from" £116 and a crown "from" £613.

Or, I could stay on the NHS, when I pay £14 for a check up, £47 for a filling and worst case its all capped at £203, but if I do that, they might only be able to see me "when they can".

Our last Dentist didn't even ask, threw up on the Private list, then told us we'd "never been NHS patients" and even "we've never had NHS patients"...

It's not that I can't pay privately, although paying £72 a month for the 4 of us would hurt, but they were super keen to take us on as NHS patients when they first opened, as they all seem to be, but once they've picked up enough patients, they seem to want to push everyone to join privately.

All depends how much you like your teeth. NHS will always be cheaper but you get what you pay for.

Mydentist are a big group of corporate practices owned partly by venture capital. They are very "business" focused.

They bought up a lot of the nhs practices in the country over the last 15 years and are now aggressively pursuing selling private dentistry to nhs patients.

They aren't always the most transparent in their pricing or in what is available on the NHS.

You might find there are other local practices that are a similar cost with better customer care

I don’t get the “poorer service” on the NHS thing. My dentist is private and NHS, I am NHS and have never had an issue with an appointment when I needed one and the care I’ve gotten is the best I’ve ever had, including root canal and crown fitted.
If I had to go private, we’ll I wouldn’t go at all because I couldn’t afford it.

...Tina was disappointed with the chart performance of her follow up single

I don’t get the “poorer service” on the NHS thing. My dentist is private and NHS, I am NHS and have never had an issue with an appointment when I needed one and the care I’ve gotten is the best I’ve ever had, including root canal and crown fitted.

I guess you aren't with a mydentist owned practice then. with hindsight, that is when the NHS practice I was with starting going rapidly downhill.

for one, the turnover of dentists seemed significant. they never seemed to stay much longer than 6-9 months.

I don’t get the “poorer service” on the NHS thing.

I had to go NHS recently, after abandoning my last dentist practise due to a new dentist trying to give me and my wife a filling every single visit (we never needed any in 30 years until then)

No NHS, tried to join for checkups but difficult due to Covid. Then I broke a tooth, had an emergency filling (which is basically just a money maker as if I'd waited a day or two I could have had a half crown moulded in the same sitting.

They conned me into a dental practice plan, which despite reading the small print, causes trouble every visit. Your crown isn't covered as you didn't have the policy in place already...why did you tell me it would be cheaper then?! PS Your checkup isn't included as you didn't take the policy out before the appointment (I tried to, twice, but they said wait until you pay). Your 2nd hygienist isn't covered. Why, I'm 6 months into my policy, the hygienist wants to see me in 4 months...that's my second appointment for the year. No, it has to be once per 6 months. (I won that arguement!)

I'll be cancelling it at the end of the 12 months and will try and move to 'the grumpy dentist'. The current ones haven't a clue what's going on and seem to mix up all the patients appointment times!

I've been a private patient with same dentist for c25 yrs; they have a small and reducing number of NHS appointments.
They have recently been bought out by Portland so I expect that trend to continue.
As for fees...examination £45 for existing patients, £65 for new; hygienist from £89 for 30 mins; silver/amalgam filling from £105; root canal from £279.
'From' is operative word.

i go private because my dentist went private and as someone who is terrified of visits to his place of work (funnily enough because, i think, i had absolutely no need for anything beyond a check up and clean for years i now fear anything more). i wouldn't touch any form of care plan - it's nothing more than insurance and insurance companies exist to make a profit, and they make the most profit where the fear of the unknown is at its highest.

Hadn't been to a dentist for about 15yrs or so, no NHS dentist, so had to go private, think it's cost me £90 for initial consultation with clean up & xrays, £200 for one molar extraction which was quite dramatic & £110 for filing of decay in wisdom tooth. Look after yer teeth peeps 😬

I persevered with NHS dentists and because of bad treatment and advice went with private with a friend two years ago and wish it had done it years ago.  Attention to detail, great treatment and i dont think the work he does is overly expensive.

I paid £800 per tooth for a pair of specialist root canals last year. Fortunately I have a zero excess policy or it would have hurt even more 😀 fillings were separate and back at the normal dentist

If they won’t undertake NHS work, then that bursary should be discontinued.

It's not that they won't do NHS work at all, it's just that the last deal "negotiated" by the Cameron government gives them a fixed amount for the various services. What they're paid to do a root canal and crown really only covers enough of their time to do the easy front teeth with one or two large roots.

From the governments own gumph on the matter:

The aim of the dental contract reform programme is to:

encourage patients to take responsibility for their oral health, with the support of the practice team
reduce the amount of necessary remedial dental work
prevent future dental disease
Patients still have access to the full range of clinically necessary treatments available on the NHS.

Paraphrased:

Got a health problem? It must be your fault.

Welcome to the Privatised NHS.

Ironically, the (guessing based on the job and looking young enough to get ID'd) straight out of school emergency dentist that saw me initially did such a good job of cleaning the nerve out that in the 12 months I've been waiting it's only hurt once. It's a shame, but you can't blame them for going private if the government refused to pay them for the hours worked.

Honestly most dentists would be happy to be able to provide an NHS service if it were truly possible at the standards they were taught to achieve during training. Leaving the nhs is rarely about making more money, it’s predominantly about maintaining high standards of care, being happy in your work, being in control of the business your home depends on and having manageable stress levels.

There is a reason the suicide rate in dentists (in the uk) is higher than almost any other profession

This is admittedly a bit “Private is awesome” as it’s a payment plan provider that’s conducting the interview bu5 the points are valid.

https://dentistry.co.uk/2022/01/07/the-benefits-of-private-and-why-ive-decided-to-leave-the-nhs-for-good/

tl:dr quote

What would you say the main benefits have been over the last 16 years since making the move away from the nhs?

ST: Being able to do the dentistry I was trained to do on the patients I want to treat. That’s really been one of the biggest benefits. Along with the freedom and control I now have. Beforehand I had no control.
I made a five-figure investment into a practice for somebody to tell me which patients I could see and what I could charge them.
If they wanted to do that, then they should have purchased all the equipment and then employed me as a dentist.
These days, dentists are making six and seven figure investments. Then somebody else is telling them how to run their service.
Once I stepped out of the NHS I got rid of all that. I had the freedom to do the dentistry I wanted to do – and on my own terms.

“

My Dentist is putting pressure on us to ‘go private’.

yes, mine booted me out by stopping NHS work, they did offer various plans but they all seemed very poor VFM, so I've just decided to go PAYG and just pay for what I want when I need it.

Worth a listen