Dentists – NHS vs Private

I’ve had a private dentist all my life and I’ve just transferred to a new one as I moved house.

I just called to register and they’re charging £17.50 which is a lot less than I expected (I used to pay £60-70 privately) so have they just assumed I’m NHS?

If so what’s the difference? My teeth are in good nick but I’ll go private if there are benefits that make the difference worthwhile…

My dentist is now a private practice but he still has a few remaining NHS patients, of which i am one 🙂

The private patients pay a monthly insurance on denplan, whereas NHS just pay as you go.

I dont think he uses different equipment or anything on me!

Difference is price. Nothing more. An I’ve had a LOT of dental work done in the last 10 years. In fact, I’d choose my NHS dentist over the private one I used any day. The private one misled me about the cost of treatment and I had to have treatment redone that they’d not done properly.

On the pedant front…. Denplan isn’t insurance. It has an insurance element within it.

Back to the OP – ask your new practice would be best, everyone here will be guessing and every practice is different.

I can’t see many benefits of going private for basic preventative treatment – check ups, x rays and scale and polish, although perhaps it will be a lot easier to get an appointment that suits your diary by going private.

I am no lover of dentists after having very poor and unprofessional treatment as a child. So for me trust in my dentist counts for everything.

I have recently just joined a new practice after a long absence and was quite surprised to see the apparent variation in private costs even with a 1 mile radius of where I live. NHS is not really an option for mw given where I live.