Pros and cons of DIY dentistry

[Owain]

with getting an NHS dentist are leading some people to pull their own teeth out. If that's not enough to make you wince, then the potential pitfalls will be.

NHS dental patients in England are being forced to pay for private care, go without treatment or even pull out their own teeth, a survey suggests. The survey of 5,200 patients for an NHS feedback body found ... 6% had treated themselves at some point. ... These included one patient from Lancashire who said they had removed 14 of their own teeth with pliers

Owain

[Paul Herber]

I've heard there was someone who pulled out 31 of their teeth! Yeah, right, pull the other one!

[R D S]

Well around here there have been newspaper headlines that there are thousands of spare NHS places at local dentists. A dentist in the town centre has a poster up in the window announcing available places. If you phone the NHS they will give you details of NHS dentists in the area.

However people around here still complain they can't find a NHS dentist, they are either thick, lazy or just love to moan.

[Andy Hall]

.. or have allowed their teeth to get into the state of the ones in the photo on the BBC site.

I'd only just had dinner as well.....

[Bob Eager]

Well, try this (or don't):

[Skipweasel]

I've done DIY dentistry before now. I broke a chunk of the side of a molar over a Bank Holiday weekend and had such a sharp edge it was cutting my cheek. Rather than bugger about trying to get help at the drop of a hat I took the sharp edge off with the dremelish. Took about five seconds and didn't hurt a bit.

On the Tuesday the dentist said it was probably the best thing to do under the circumstances and made no difference to the repair he ended up making.

[Mike Barnes]

I wonder how many of these sensational cases are people who hate going to the dentist so much they'd rather do it themselves even if a dentist (NHS or private) was available.

[Derek Geldard]

The NHS webshite also lies.

The webshite even warns you it's data is not up to date.

Correction : just looked at it, it has changed NHS direct no longer even pretends to point you at NHS dentists who are actually accepting new NHS patients.

"Disclaimer

NHS Direct has no control over the accuracy and reliability of this service. Please contact NHS Choices if you want to amend or correct any of the local health services information on this page"

The pictures we've seen in the papers and on TV of queues 1,000 long are just of thick shit heads then?

DG

[Mogga]

My dad can't. He asked the local health authority for one and they put him in touch with one who did him a check up and made a followup apppintment for the work. he turned up and they claimed to have cancelled the appointment and he'd need to rebook (and pay again)... There's no point arguing the toss about payment with someone who's going to be putting sharp instruments into your mouth though. My BF's mum missed an appointment (she didn't get a reminder and was pre-occupied with looking after her sister who's got dementia to realise she was due one) so was taken off their list. However our dentist was taking on people last time I was there. Does the government recommend 6 monthly or 12 monthly appointments at the moment? Didn't they extend it to 12 to cut down on the queues? A dentist doing NHS work earns 94K a year apparently.

[Andy Hall]

Which is not enough to run a surgery plus nurse and all the bits that go with it to do a proper job....

Why would they want to lose money?

Many private dentists will treat the children of a family using NHS funding to normal private standards, where the parents are private patients. That's just about economic.

Had it not been for their recent salary increases, the same would have started happening with GPs. Good idea actually. Paying at the point of delivery would be a much better idea than having the middle man.

[Andy Burns]

9 months here

[AJH]

I once bought an emergency filling kit for use on a trip abroad, I never used it. Are they still available? People on long expeditions probably have a need of something. Further to that what reaction would you get from the dentist when you went for a proper repair, it's be no good if he had to drill more tooth just to get rid of the temporary stuff.

AJH

[S Viemeister]

The temporary stuff comes away quite easily - it's not designed to last very long. Some of the temp fillers can also be used to (temporarily) reseat crowns and bridges.

[nightjar]

Yes, but not much good IME. My partner lost one of her crowns over a Bank holiday and we decided to use the travel kit. It lasted about half a day before coming loose again.

Colin Bignell

[S Viemeister]

I've seen a few different types - some were good, and some were nearly useless.

[wattie]

A couple of years back we were in Singapore and the front face came off an old crown. I used my wife's glue from her false nail kit. It lasted until I got back, but the dentist told me not to do it again as the glue was poisonous. WM

[Doki]

Depends if it's £94k a year from the NHS for the work, or £94k a year salary. I'd be fairly miffed if it was £94k a year total for all the NHS work and what I got was less the running of the business, whereas £94k total would have me rather chuffed.

[Tim Southerwood]

Doki coughed up some electrons that declared:

I would guess it is the former, seeing as how so many former NHS dentists are no longer signing up new NHS patients.

My dentist is a top bloke - not the sort of guy AFAICS to be greedy, or a milker of systems, but he dropped new NHS sign-ons a while back, except for children, so I suspect it must be a problem.

Cheers

Tim

[geoff]

In message , wattie writes

It would probably have been significantly cheaper for her to have got it repaired locally, maybe in Jahore Baru or in Jakarta

[Andy Hall]

Clearly the former, which is why there is little interest in doing it.

Several dentists that I know say that they would be losing money once the overheads and employment costs were met.