OT NHS Dentistry - is it dead

[old.bailey]

Seems a state of affairs exists in at least some dental practices which imho masquerade as NHS but really are flytraps for the NHS underclass.

I was just offered an appointment at practice X for... next September. Yes there were some NHS appointments with other dentists before that, who, according to the Notice board were trained everywhere except in the UK. (Like the old joke of "BDS Calcutta" - only it's not a joke any more). Having experienced some slovenly treatment from such qualified dentist (dental adhesive spattered onto adjacent teeth and some on gums!) I was not keen to have it repeated. PC or not.

She who must be obeyed has been a patient at the same practice for many years and has repeatedly had her NHS checkup postponed. It really does seem the purpose of such is to push people into the open arms of TTip-style private dental companies. I guess the practice can associate itself with such slogans as "Proud to Serve the NHS" while actually acting as a rather obvious front for Privatisation. I wonder if these practices get any "incentives" from the Real-NHS" to behave in this way?

The same practice has a large sign outside "Now Taking New Patients". Venus Fly Traps?

[ss]

I think it is dying, although a lot depends on where you live, I was private for 30 odd years and decided it was costing too much, fillings etc free but any dental lab work raked up a cost. If I need major treatment I will take a short holiday abroad. So went NHS 3 years ago and can get an appointment within the week, they email me with a reminder a week ahead of my check ups so cant complain.

[Rob]

Go abroad for a city break. Take the wife. You can get private treatment in Eastern Europe with English speaking dentists and composite (white) fillings for less than £30 per filling.

The last one I visited in Poland asked me if I'd had my silver amalgam fillings (free NHS dentistry as a child) put in in the Soviet Union, I shit you not

[Tim Watts]

I avoid English dentists like the plague.

Want to fix my teeth - be from South Africa. Had 2 in my life - both brilliant. All bar one of the other dentists - useless.

[Andy Burns]

I've had four Austro-Hungarian dentists in Hungary, and one South African over here ... all better than the British dentist I had over here before that.

[Bob Eager]

My previous one was from the Netherlands and was good, but hard to get to.

Current one is a Finnish lady, just down the road.

[PeterC]

This isn't recent: a friend's son qualified as a dentist and started looking for a job. Every one he went to seemed to be, er, southern Asian and strongly hinted at the benefits of extra 'necessary' procedures (these places were all roughly between Northampton and London). Eventually he just gave up and became a pharmaceutical rep. This was about

35 years ago!

[Tim Streater]

The one here isn't too bad. The one I had in Cambridge was very good, albeit a tad expensive. The one I had in the US was very show biz, dressed flashily, but was OK. He had a string of hygienists, with emphasis on the word "had". He normally treated several patients at once, as in one numbing up, one being drilled, one waiting for the next phase, sort of thing.

Swiss dentists of 50 years ago, IME, were of the view that anaesthesia in dentistry was for cissies.

[charles]

My current dentist looks Indian, but she's a Londoner through and through. She's even divorced, to complete th authenticity.

[charles]

Oil of cloves, surely?

[Andy Burns]

Disliking injections (especially in roof of mouth) there are times I've asked for minor drilling to be done without ...

[News]

In message , Bob Eager writes

Jacobus van Nierop?

[Tim Streater]

These days they put on Topical (sp?) to numb the spot where the needle is going. At the Cambridge dental surgery I went to, they had even just introduced something called the Magic Wand which injects you without you really noticing. I though that was great but they don't have it here.

My US guy did one interesting injection on me. As soon as the needle went in (zero delay), it all numbed up. Instantly. It was only later in the day when it was still numb that he said he must have hit a nerve complex at the back of my mouth. Took six weeks for that to wear off.

[Bob Eager]

Oh dear. No.

Mine is still working, but just a bit too inconvenient geographically.

[Tricky Dicky]

I think the answer round here is, yes. If you go on the NHS website for our district you will get hundreds of dentists purporting to be NHS but look c loser and you find they will not treat adults on the NHS just children. The few that still treat adults have such abysmal star ratings NHS work is pro bably all they can get.

Richard

[philipuk]

Thanks for reminding me that I have to pay an extortionate amount next week for someone to count my teeth and scold me about not flossing.

Philip

[Jonno]

old.bailey@127.0.0.1 scribbled

There are 34 medical schools in the UK, but only 18 dental schools. In the 1980's several dental schools shut, not only in the UK, but the US as well, which created a shortage of dentists.

[Huge]

My previous (Indian, private) dentist has cost me £1300 and the loss of a molar, so far. I am not amused.

[old.bailey]

I guess many of us have dentist horror stories. But really, the Nation's dental health is going to get a lot worse very quickly I think. And a lot of people will suffer considerable pain - not being able to find a dentist to help them.

This is the tip of the TTip iceberg imo.

[Chris J Dixon]

I can still smell the mask used to put us under for extractions as a child - one of which apparently left me out for rather longer than expected. Who knows what might have happened. That particular dentist retired suddenly - it was either early onset Alzheimer's, or he had been at his drugs cabinet.

Whilst at Quarry Bank Mill, I noticed the display included a dentist chair. The articulated drilling arm was there, but the whirring elastic belt had obviously perished. Vivid memories of sitting in such a chair as the slow drill ground away at my molars. Even the light - a cluster of four globes, was the same.

Nevertheless, some of my sizeable amalgam fillings from those days are still in place.

Chris