Dental question 🙋‍♂️

Quoted from Humbercod

For years I had an excellent dentist until his retirement a few years back, since then the practice has employed Eastern European’s that have done an ok job.
Now I’ve noticed that my duration time in the chair seem to be getter shorter and shorter, with my last visit lasting less than 5mins! I didn’t even get a scrape and polish which I’ve always had on past check ups.
Now I’ve questioned the practice who confirm that the dentist are self employed but they deny any time constraints.
So I’d like to know do they get a price per patient or will they be on some kind of day rate. And do you think 5 mins is acceptable no matter how good a condition my teeth are in?

Quoted from Humbercod

For years I had an excellent dentist until his retirement a few years back, since then the practice has employed Eastern European’s that have done an ok job.
Now I’ve noticed that my duration time in the chair seem to be getter shorter and shorter, with my last visit lasting less than 5mins! I didn’t even get a scrape and polish which I’ve always had on past check ups.
Now I’ve questioned the practice who confirm that the dentist are self employed but they deny any time constraints.
So I’d like to know do they get a price per patient or will they be on some kind of day rate. And do you think 5 mins is acceptable no matter how good a condition my teeth are in?

Quoted Text

More time taken, better materials used, better laboratory and potentially more difficult procedure. Some materials are not paid for by the NHS. Now I’ve absolutely no idea what they were charging for but that sort of price would suggest to me either an upper and lower cobalt chrome denture (can’t get it made with cobalt chrome on the NHS) or multiple crowns or bridgework. Again, there are many materials that cannot be used for NHS when it comes to crowns and bridges. The £250 charge (would have been £282 if recent) is a band 3 treatment on the NHS which includes anything that needs a laboratory to make something. On the NHS the dentist gets 12 UDAs (units of dental activity) for any band 3 but you only get 12 no matter how many crowns (for example) you fit. The local average payment to the dentist is about £12 per UDA so a crown gets around £140 and the lab cost of the crown is approximately £30 to the dentist. If you have to fit three crowns the lab cost will be £90 but you still only get  around £140 in payment meaning you’ve spent probably a couple of hours doing difficult work for not much money when you consider the high demand and high levels of skill necessary to perform the task. Which is why the UDA system is bad for patients because it encourages ‘managed neglect’ potentially.

If you’re going to cast aspersions as to a profession being money grabbers then please at least have some basic understanding of what you’re talking about.

Quoted from DB

Mariner you said on another thread about dental charges :-



This was in response to my comment about the difference  of £250 NHS to £1,700 private charge. From your above statement your far up on dental charges than I will ever be.

This was a simple case of arithmetic and as far is known the treatment for the prices was the same. Their was nothing extra stated for the private work and the descriptions matched. The dentist was English, worked at the practise for several years as a sole NHS practice that is converting to a private practice like others in Grimsby. As far as I know the practice is a partnership so exact ownership details are hard to find.

They have the same amount of staff and apart from covid nothing else has changed. I just find it hard under the circumstances for a practice to justify a higher price, about 600% higher. I don't know what other think but the term rip off comes to mind.

Quoted from Sandford1981

Which dentist are we talking about DB?

Quoted from mariner91

Unless you know what the treatment offered was then you can’t call it a rip off. Different cars cost a different amount but do the same job but people accept that an Aston Martin is worth more than a Fiat Punto. Why is this different?

Quoted from mariner91

You don’t even know what the treatment is or what the treatment offered is but it’s a ‘like for like’. Laughable. As I said before there’s different materials, different labs, different techniques for every thing and some won’t be available on the NHS. Even when something is offered privately different types of crown will have a different price.

Quoted from Humbercod

My Dentist is the Dental Design Studio on Grimsby Road, formally run by the brilliant doctor Bull and his wife. I have all my teeth and they are in good contrition. In over 35 years as a patient there I’ve always had some kind of scale and polish.
But this time she just poked at my teeth for a couple of minutes then said ‘good job your teeth are great’ that was it! I didn’t even get to rinse out with the pink mouth wash stuff.
I think for £21.80 they could factor in a scale and polish as part of a basic check up, or have times changed if you’re teeth are ok that’s it?

Quoted from DB

I believe it's now called Dentology, Hainton Ave.

Quoted from FishOutOfWater

Was that formely Burrell's?

Quoted from DB

Yes

Quoted from KingstonMariner

I avoid the dentist for the very reason I hate having a scale and polish. Teeth bloody hurt after that. The only upside is that the one I usually see is an attractive (East European) woman who has a ‘you naughty boy’ tone when she tells me to floss more 😁.

Quoted from Humbercod

Where’s your Dentist? Asking for a friend!

Quoted from FishOutOfWater

I wasn't sure

I used to know both Ian and his brother Keith indirectly through an ex girlfriend who worked there as a dental nurse

I've just noticed that there was a bit of a to-do a few years back with them.... not very good publicity really

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-3875900

Quoted from Humbercod

Where’s your Dentist? Asking for a friend!

Quoted from KingstonMariner

I avoid the dentist for the very reason I hate having a scale and polish. Teeth bloody hurt after that. The only upside is that the one I usually see is an attractive (East European) woman who has a ‘you naughty boy’ tone when she tells me to floss more 😁.

Quoted from DB

I read that but I believe, no evidence, from the write up it was more to do with the 2 foreign dentists. However all I can do is praise the staff. I see Tim Stokes and found him very reassuring. I was petrified of dentists and could smell ether every time I went in. The memories of bad experiences as a  child. Doesn't happen now but it did for near on 15 years!!!!. Again I can only praise Tim.