Options
NHS, why are doctor\hospital treatments free but nhs dentists arent free?
andersonsonson
Posts: 6,454 Forum Member
✭
At least a teeth scaling (clean) should be free every 6 months. Everyone needs it.
0
andersonsonson
Posts: 6,454
Comments
Your talking about preventative measures which must surely be a good thing but it is all about money I suppose.
NHS dentistry is free to some people and you can also claim back if you are on a low income - You fill in a HC1 form. On the other hand NHS dentistry is subsidised even if you pay the full amount but I do feel it should be given higher priority than it is, especially as we should be encouraging people to attend more often to save more costly treatment in the long run.
I suppose it is just funding though which is something which affects many healthcare services although dentistry is the one people commonly think of. Podiatry, which I work in, is the same with only people who have certain conditions or whose mobility is affected being given free NHS treatment. Plenty of people have problems which are concerning or uncomfortable for them and they are not eligible.
A lot of ours now only take private patients Sun, the costs are much higher. I know people who struggle to get treatment especially sympathetic treatment.
But not all will take people on Matt, well that is my feedback from people
Actually, what I said isn't strictly true.
Check ups and emergency work like fillings and extractions are free to those with a low income, but preventative treatments and hygienist appointments are £50 or more.
Having assisted dentists for 4 years as a dental nurse before changing career, I can categorically tell you that you could absolutely not train as a dentist in one year. They essentially do a medical degree but specialise.
Dentists are just people who would have been shit doctors.
Some of the work is barbaric and is the cheapest option as far as I'm concerned Matt. Call me old fashioned but I used to think that being in medical care such as a Doctor, Dentist, Nurse or in education such as a Teacher etc was a vocation, it was about people and helping them . *wanders off into cuckoo land*
Seeing as medicine and dentistry entry requirements are very similar, I don't see how that could be the case.
Anyway, they are doctors. They are perfectly entitled to use the term doctor. They all seemed to when I wrote/read their letters for them anyway.
Hmmmm.
Knowledge of the entire human body and every associated illness vs knowing a bit about a few teeth.
No, I'd say doctors have rather more to offer.
Please explain how you could do this in a year
http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/explore-by-career/dental-team/careers-in-the-dental-team/dentist/training-to-be-a-dentist/undergraduate-dental-education/
http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/explore-by-career/dental-team/careers-in-the-dental-team/dentist/training-to-be-a-dentist/postgraduate-dental-education/
http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/explore-by-career/dental-team/careers-in-the-dental-team/dentist/training-to-be-a-dentist/continuing-professional-education-recertification-for-dentists/
Instead of laying all the blame at the door of the dentist you could lay a lot at the door of successive governments starting in 1992 when the government of the day slashed fees they paid for NHS treatments at dentists. Most dentists had to take on more private work to stay afloat and if they wanted to make a profit as they were not employed by the NHS but self employed they had to take on more and more private work, no one can afford to work at a loss.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-191300/Why-NHS-dentist.html
http://www.dentalholiday.co.uk/dentistry-uk/
And as you can see from this story PCT's actually turn down dentists wanting to offer NHS treatment and they still do.
http://www.healthcare-today.co.uk/content.php?contentId=6047
After buying a new dental practice with the intention of introducing NHS dentistry, I was amazed to be told by the primary care trust that I could not do this as there was not enough funding available. This would not even have been available when the contacts were up for review in 2009 because nay available funding would be redistributed among existing NHS dental practices. I was told that I was wasting time. -
I am not saying they have the same knowledge as doctors but generally their knowledge of anatomy and pathology is at a very similar level. Of course they specialise in different things, which is why when you go to A&E or your GP with a dental problem they often don't have a clue. I have seen plenty of patients be wrongly diagnosed at those places.
Just like if you go to your dentist with a knee problem they are unlikely to be very helpful.
I'm sure they don't make dentists do 5 years at uni and 1 pre reg year just for the hell of it.
I have to say that most dentists I've visited have a rather self-important air about them that you certainly don't experience with GPs... or "proper doctors" as I call them.
The ones I have known have been quite honest about it being about making money, I cannot judge them as I don't know the restrictions involved. I know the GP's can be quite crafty Matt, I so remember my doctor ticking off a home visit after my first child being born that he had not done...cheeky git. He would have been paid for it despite not doing it! We were more like friends so I let him off!
Eat and drink properly and brush twice a day and you'll never need to have any fillings.
Not sure how you work that out? Presumably then dentists never have anything done to their teeth?
Not everyone - I don't, nor does anyone with full set of false teeth. We only need to go to get our gums checked for oral cancer - which the doctor could easily do.
I don't use a dentist for new false teeth - I go direct to a technician and save myself about £200
(And before any comments of not looking after my teeth - a bike accident with serious infection caused me to lose mine)
I hate spending money just to see my dentist for a check up; I dont' mind paying for an actual treatment.
It would be nice if NHS services could be free; but it ain't gonna happen. You might not be able to get gleaming white teeth at home, but you can make sure they are plaque free and well-flossed, which means that you're less likely to need fillings later on.
As an aside: I think it's odd how people champion free dentistry, and yet we all seem to have accepted that eye care must be paid for. I know certain conditions / benefits give you free eyetests and discounted glasses, but most people I know pay full price for check-ups and vision correction - and never, ever complain about it.
You have more control over how healthy your teeth and gums are. A lot of people who suffer dental problems have neglected their teeth - but with your eyes it's luck of the draw / genetics. You can't do anything to prevent your sight from deteriorating, but if you're unlucky enough to become short / long sighted then you're left paying a lifetime of opticians' bills.
I reckon I will soon have paid nearly £1000 for all the check-ups and glasses I've needed over the years, and I got NHS glasses until I was 16!
People forget that dentistry is actually "surgery" and to deliver surgery it costs a hell of a lot of money. It's not just a room with a desk and a couple of chairs. You have all the disposable materials they use (gloves, bib, tissues, suction tubes etc etc) as well as the fact that they are treating you with expensive equipment that all needs to be sterilised. Then after you leave the room, they have to clean it down and start again. Even if you just go in for a ten minute check-up, the "spend" on it is a hell of a lot more than most people realise.
Some people would counter this by saying "Ah, but heart surgery (for example) is free".
Sure it is, but how many people per year need heart surgery? Multiply all that I've said above by the millions upon millions of people who need to access dental surgery, often several times a year. I cannot think of a single branch of medicine you can compare it to in terms of the sheer volume who require it, and on such a regular basis.
And on a side note regarding dentist's pay and on the idea that "dentists go private so they can make more money". I have a few friends who are dentists and have had lengthy discussions with them in the past about their profession. I was chatting with two of them once, one of whom was an NHS dentist and another who was purely private, both worked full time. During the conversation it transpired that the NHS dentist actually earned more money than the private one did. But for that, he saw around twice the number of patients in a day than the private one did and found his job far more stressful.
Also, on individual treatments, dentists actually make very little profit when you take off everything it has cost them to provide that treatment. If they are well paid, it's because they have to be incredibly productive. My NHS dentist friend told me that on many individual occasions, it actually costs him money out of his own pocket to treat someone. That seems totally ridiculous to me. Would you expect a plumber to come to your house and install a boiler, then charge you less money for the job than it cost him to buy the boiler from his supplier?!
In an ideal world, all dentistry would be free at the point of service for all. But that world would be called La-La Land. The numbers just could not stack up.
Dentists and Opticians were free on NHS originally but charges have been introduced by successive governments..