Is your dentist ripping you off?
Many of us hate going to the dentist as it is, without having to worry if we're being overcharged. Johanna Gornitzki sinks her teeth into the subject.
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My dentist is ok. I had similar problems with tooth ache. First of all he replaced the filling. That didn't work so he did some x-rays and finally some root canal work which eventually sorted it.
He just chaged me £45 the cost of the original filling replacement.
He's not NHS by the way.
Root filling is band b or something - I was charged £45ish pounds
I do not feel the comments made go far enough when it comes to private complaints. You cannot complain to the NHS when dealing with private dental care, if you have a complaint you can contact The Dental Complaints service at (www).dentalcomplaints.org.uk, it is an indepentant service funded by the General Dental Council who over see all dentist/hygenists within the UK, you cannot use this service for NHS complaints, in this case, Johanna is correct.
I feel that more action needs to be taken regarding the pricing and regulation of Dentists. I also know of people including myself who have been totally ripped off. I for one cannot see how it is justified to do 20 minutes work on a tooth and be charged £100-200 pounds. The amount of time spent does not in any way justify these prices and I do not believe for one minute that the products cost anywhere near the price charged. I also have had teeth treated by a dentist who filled the tooth, it became extremely infected and she was going to do root canal when I stopped her. I then had my tooth checked by another dentist who said that the tooth was totally rotten and could not be saved. By not having the root canal treatment I had saved myself over £250. I believe that dentists are totally ripping us off and a investigation should be carried out into how they are treating teeth which do not need treated, infecting them, pressuring us to have treatment we do not need and then over charging us. So, my question is "why is this happening to people like you and me and nothing is being done about"?
I just had an appointment with a private dentist , wasnt any treatment but a 1st consultation.
did a few x rays and spoke for about 40 mins.
my bill ? -- £213 , plus i was referred to specialist to have my broken tooth extracted, this will no doubt cost me in region of 1k
and cheekiest thing was --the dentist wondered why i havent been on any check ups for a year , why the hell do you think?
im fed up of this nonsense
Most dental disease is preventable by not eating inbetween meals and cleaning well. It might be too late for us grown ups but please be careful with your children. Juice and squash are a real problem.
Hi,
I went to NHS once and I have only one thing to say: NEVER again!
I then went to a private dentist which was advised to me by a colleague. She advised me that it was quite expensive but very professional. And I decided to go to have my teeth checked. 6 weeks later I have 1000 pounds less in my bank but I gained:
1 first appointment of over 2 hours, where lots of pictures where taken, 2 mini xrays, 1 full xray.
2 fillings (I couldn't believe the pictures she showed me!)
1 hygenist session,
1 porcelain crown + all necessary appointments needed to have this fitted and so on.
My doctor is brilliant and each appointment lasts over 2 hours every time. I feel like they care and I do not mind at all the money I spent.
My wallet is sore though....!
I have had implants done in Budapest & the initial consultation was in London (where I still go for annual check-ups). Using the Hungarian dentists saved me hundreds of pounds, even after other costs (hotels/flights etc). Whilst not appropriate perhaps for lower cost treatments, it is certainly worth exploring for more expensive work.
I went to an nhs dentist who recommended I needed 15 fillings!!!!.
I then went to a private dentist who said I did not need these and I did't even need many of the fillings I already had!!!
However I did need a root canal filling some years later and a different private specialist charged me nearly £1000 for this treatment - that has not worked. It now looks as though I will have to pay £2500 per tooth for an implant, if it is not too late - different specialist.....
There should be a register with maximum prices.
Can you trust foreign dentists and which are the best countries?
Are there any guarantees re quality of work? Here and abroad.
N.B I am a pensioner,wanting the best for my teeth, without money to burn.
I have been to 4 dentists now and between all 4 they have ruined my teeth, I used to have perfect teeth and now have a mouth full of fillings !! Half my teeth are broken through them inserting and taking out fillings. I have never been so depressed because of this !!! I thought you had a filling and that was it !! I have had the same filling removed now 3 times and I've joined yet another dentist to say most of them need to replaced again!! I've reached then end of my tether !!! Some thing needs to be done !!!!
'and cheekiest thing was --the dentist wondered why i havent been on any check ups for a year , why the hell do you think?'
Yeh I don't go to check-ups either, they're so expensive. All of my teeth are rotten and falling out but I'd rather have the money in my pocket.
I had a basic filling at a non NHS dentist and was charged £139. When I quereid this, I was told that it was the minimum charge for a filling. My wife had a similar filling done at another non NHS dentist and it was £45. Result - I changed my dentist. What a ripoff.
Hi I was interested to hear that you have had tooth implants done in Budapest. I need implants, but it is very expensive in UK. Are you still happy with your treatment and would you be able to give me details of the dentist and dental practice you attended in Budapest? Thanks
I use a private dentist. He is very professional and I would recommend him. However, this comes at a price.
Eventually I joined Denplan which does help spread the cost. A crown costs approx £420 + Lab fees at £130 (Denplan doesn't cover Lab-fees so beware) as the Lab fees were 6 months cost of Denplan. I have 3 crowns now.
But the Level of service is high, the practice is well ran, so I suppose you pay the extra, it's like getting your car serviced at a main dealer, nice surroundings but sky high charges.
I had some minor problems and wen to my local NHS dentist in Liverpool who also has 2 private practices in quite affluent areas. He owns about 20 properties, lives in a 1 million pound house, drives a 911 and a range rover. All he could say was " I think you need to go private and quoted 10K, as a matter of fact. He said he could not do it on NHS - rubbish. This man has certificates all over the wall in reception, masters this, masters that, fellow of this etc. He is rubbish with a capital R. He gave me fillings on my 2 front teeth, very noticeable, that went bad and really affected my confidence. He wanted to charge me to fix them!! I was so disillusioned with the system that I ended up in a clinic in Budapest (after due dillegence) to combine a holiday with treatment. It was AMAZING!! I was actually embarrased by our Dentists here. I got the best treatment for 20 percent of the cost and now people always comment on my teeth. I have just been fro my free yearly check up and they pick you up from the airport and take you to your Hotel!! They took a free full xray and showed me how bad the work was that he had done. Root canals only half full etc. They actually asked me if he was a Dentist! This Country sucks. Wake up UK, we are getting ripped off big time
I went to my local garage for a service they wanted to charge me £300 but another garage said it would only be £150 , a week after the service I noticed my brakes were poor and I had to pay for more work on the car , why the first garage didnt tell me I dont know.
Sounds familiar ?
Your reporter should get real , she opted for a private white filling , her choice , if the toooth required a root filling she would have had to pay for that as well , the dentist tried to do her a favour and gave the tooth a chance not to need further treatment at additional cost to her , unfortunately it didnt work .
No doubt she would have complained if the dentist would have told her that she needed the root canal at the first visit accusing him of doing work that was not necessary.
First dentist had the skills and equipment to save your tooth.
Second dentist had not invested in their skills and equipment so was unable to offer to save your tooth.
Who's ripping you off in this situation?
The bigger a hole is the more likely the tooth is to die and while a filling repairs the hole it cant bestow everlasting life on the nerve. Johanna had left it too late going to the dentist. Dead teeth become infected and painful so then its either extraction or root filling. If Johanna's tooth was not quite dead when it was filled then her dentist would not have root filled it as a percentage survive against the odds. Those teeth that die do need root filling and yes that does need to be paid for, the root filling is not instead of a filling it is as well as a root filling, roof and foundations rather than roof only.
Dental practices overheads vary but easily top £100 an hour so charges will vary too, you can not expect treatment for the price of a packet of fags, Some people prefer disease in their mouth and money in their pocket to a healthy mouth and a little less pocket money.
The bigger a hole is the more likely the tooth is to die and while a filling repairs the hole it cant bestow everlasting life on the nerve. Johanna had left it too late going to the dentist. Dead teeth become infected and painful so then its either extraction or root filling. If Johanna's tooth was not quite dead when it was filled then her dentist would not have root filled it as a percentage survive against the odds. Those teeth that die do need root filling and yes that does need to be paid for, the root filling is not instead of a filling it is as well as a root filling, roof and foundations rather than roof only.
Dental practices overheads vary but easily top £100 an hour so charges will vary too, you can not expect treatment for the price of a packet of fags, Some people prefer disease in their mouth and money in their pocket to a healthy mouth and a little less pocket money.
I took a complaint about a private dentist to the dental complaints service .They are worse than useless,it became very obvious very quickly that they only exist to protect the dentist,not the patient.If you do have a complaint about a private dentist,let me save you some time,dont bother going to the dental complaints service.
The bigger a hole is the more likely the tooth is to die and while a filling repairs the hole it cant bestow everlasting life on the nerve. Johanna had left it too late going to the dentist. Dead teeth become infected and painful so then its either extraction or root filling. If Johanna's tooth was not quite dead when it was filled then her dentist would not have root filled it as a percentage survive against the odds. Those teeth that die do need root filling and yes that does need to be paid for, the root filling is not instead of a filling it is as well as a root filling, roof and foundations rather than roof only.
Dental practices overheads vary but easily top £100 an hour so charges will vary too, you can not expect treatment for the price of a packet of fags, Some people prefer disease in their mouth and money in their pocket to a healthy mouth and a little less pocket money.
Dental treatments are expensive in the UK due to the very high regulations imposed on uk dentists. The amount of regulations on UK dentists is the highest in the world and drives up the cost of dental treatments. If you wish to have cheap dental treatments, you need to go to eastern europe or India where there is very light regulation on dentists. But you get what you pay for.
To Gnasher re, "I went to an nhs dentist who recommended I needed 15 fillings!!!!. I then went to a private dentist who said I did not need these and I did't even need many of the fillings I already had!!!"
Did the NHS dentist offer these fillings on the NHS or privately and where was the dentist based? In Scotland, dentists get paid a set amount per filling. If you were in England or Wales, and the dentist offered the treatment all on the NHS, £39 in Wales or £47 in England, he likely wasn't making it up. A NHS dentist in England and Wales would get paid the same amount in total for doing 1 filling for a patient as they would for providing 15 fillings plus 10 root fillings plus 15 extractions to another patient in the one course of treatment..
I wouldn't trust any dentist who said you didn't need any of the filling you've had in the past? How does he know if you did or didn't need them if all the rot has been removed and replaced with filling?
It would be like going to a different garage after having a car serviced in another garage, where you had brake pads, tyres etc replaced, and the second garage saying you actually didn't need them replaced. How would they know this if they didn't see the state of the original items?
As a dentist, I have a few points to make.
1. Regardless of what people say here, KEEP YOUR CHECK-UPS. They are not a waste of time. It is very distressing to tell the people who don't they are losing teeth to gum-disease or tooth decay. Most do not floss every day nor control diet properly.
2. The price you pay reflects many things, including factors you may not be aware about, such as lab fees or expensive material costs. I work on the NHS in northern Ireland, and an extraction is ~£6.00. 2 cartridges of local anaesthetic cost ~£2. And it takes up to 30minutes sometimes. I give 60% of that to my principle.
Dentists make money by turning their job into a business. Some dentists do not make much money.
3. White crowns, white fillings are expensive. They are harder to do, materials are expensive and they fail more. These are factored into the price. If cost is an issue, silver fillings and metal crowns are cheap and cheerful and last longer than cosmetic options. They are also more forgiving to those who don't look after their teeth!
4. Dentists get paid for work they do, not for their time. I often see 40 patients in a day, about 3-4 emergencies. We don't have the time to explain in detail how we treat teeth or the NHS system. The information is freely available to all those who the internet. I give all options, basic to high end and allow people to make their own choices.
Please do not make assumptions about dentists or their motives. The new NHS system in England is a disaster. The government cannot afford to pay for NHS dentistry but did not want to admit it and implemented a system which forces the dentists to cut corners just to keep their businesses alive.
Dentists are being forced to charge £100 -£200 (as per your comment)
This is nothing to do with ripping people off - it is all about the fact that the cost of running a dental surgery has become huge
Blame your government for it. Dentists have to pay the general dental council almost $600 per annum. Their indemnity can be as much as £2000 per annum
Then the practice is subject to IRMER, IRR, CQC and many other regulations which cos a fortune
In effect when all bills are calculuated the cost of running a dental practice has become in the region of £150 per hour
Have a simple ffilling done. To have it done properly in the best standards etc takes an hour
The truth is the NHS cannot afford this. The government has no guts to admit these costings
Dentists are struggling as small businesses (and yes this is true!) and therefore the costs
Even now I bet most people will not believe my last statement - but it is the truth
Healthcare has been devalued and you think it is a rip off
Maybe you should have kept your teeth clean. Then you would not have needed the fillings.
But it is easier to blame the dentists
I went to a posh hotel and they charged me £300 for a bed for the night. I then stayed at the Travel Lodge and it only cost me £50. The posh hotel must have been ripping me off!
Dentistry is not a product, it is a service. Different levels of service attract different charges. You should find out how much it is going to cost before you have the treatment and if you don't value it at that price, choose another dentist.
I went to the Dentist last year,waited 10 mins in the waiting room, then up to his chair, sat down said arrr and 10 mins later was on way out and £16 to pay
Last week went again and needed a checkup but didnt get it and he found a chip on rear of front tooth, filled that and no cleaning or even looked at other teeth and that was £43
Any person leaving school needs to look at becoming a dentist, 5 day week 9-30 to 5-30 and the wage must be around£35.000 a year min
I arranged for my partner to have an implant and capping in Belgrade ... UK estimate for this was about 5000 GBP......... Belgrade estimate ~ 1100 GBP. Result Belgrade got the job , 5 visits in total when convienient to us (including 2 weekend appontments + a followup check to ensure everything OK + the opportunity to go back (gratis) if there were any problems. The outcome .... will happily go back to this dentist again ..... Belgrade is an interesting city and BA flights daily and cheap as is accomodation. .. PS..The dentist "Smile Dent" is used by Brit, US and Canadian embassy's.
I am having a lot of trouble receiving a refund from my dentist. They say they will refund but I have been waiting for months. I keep phoning them and have spoken to their practice manager and their head office, but still no luck.
I paid up front £29.10 in March to have a large back upper molar extracted on the NHS. I then asked them if they could refer me to hospital instead to have it extracted. They said yes they could and I have an appointment in 2 weeks for extraction by my local hospital.
I and my husband and family feel we would rather not stay with this practice. They are not a decent practice. We will find another dentist. They are a very large practice and have surgeries all over England. We are warning all our friends and groups/neighbours etc about them.
Go to Turkey have your teeth done and a holiday at the same time. I have no problems with the Turkish dentist I use. Just had a filling replaced with a white one cost £20.
you were fortunate to only pay 29.10 for an extraction. I had a lower back molar extracted last Thursday,and it cost me 47.00
Sounds to me like many of the contributors here have the job done and then grumble about the cost afterwards. Many people also go into a pub, ask for a pint (or whatever) pay and then grumble later at the cost. The motto? ask first - then decide.
Have you noticed the dentists are like insurance salesmen when you visit they are your best friend of the day.They ask about family hobbies etc.so its hard to complain about the costs when you pay at the reception.
My Dentist charged me £22 for EACH Pola Night tube of whitening.(Rip off)
Online I got FOUR Pola Night tubes for £23.49 (inc P & P)?!?!?!
After years of being treated half-heartedly by NHS dentists and consequently, all too often by half-baked trainees, for most of my life, I opted to spend some of my hard-won pension on some private dental treatment. Over a period of several months, my highly professional dentist made good all of the botched and missed NHS work and I am no longer ashamed to smile at people. The work was charged at a fair professional rate and I was told the costs in detail well in advance of treatment at every stage. I received excellent value for money from the private professionals, as opposed to the NHS treatment, which I felt had been limited to fit the NHS budget restrictions rather than my need for certain treatments. The only time I received satisfactory treatment via the NHS was forty-odd years ago. That dentist was Canadian. The only time I complained, I was "advised" to find another dentist. At that time I had no money to pay for private treatment, so was trapped in a second-rate service. On the other hand, the NHS medical services generally have for me and my family been excellent value for money in many ways and I cannot praise their services, other than dentistry, highly enough, from GPs to heart specialists. It is unlikely that all NHS dentists are bad, but the way their system seems to be funded and administered is terminal; probably deliberately so - privatisation by attrition.
As I have lost my job and want to get my out goings down I have changed from a private to a NHS dentist.
A bit nervous at doing so but I found the treatment received on my first visit was a lot better and more thorough and pounds cheaper.
Every time I went to my private dentist I never got out with just an examination even though I went every six months there was always x-rays or a clean or hygenist the cheapest bill the last few years was £80.
When I had an abcess he gave me the emergency number nobody was ever there out of hours for advice ended going to a Saturday morning dental clinic somewhere else as an emergency as the pain was so bad.
I think what also put me off was the fact that I had a filling redone tooth broke had it put back at the cost of £400 and it lasted two years then it had to come out totally it came out in bits very painful and I sort of have a thing about going to the dentist now.
Please tell me who you went to in Budapest and also if you can still be treated afterwards with dentists in the UK
I had a friend who needed the top set of teeth replace with inplants, he went to altimkum Turkey, where the ist visit the teeth were remove & a temporary denture installed, 5 months later he return to have it finished off. total price £3900.00, price quoted in u.k £7960.00
He is happy with the result & had two holidays as well.
i have worked for an NHS dental practice for
many yrs i see what goes on in and out of the surgerys.. and its not fair i like patients to be treated fairly as i would like to be treated myself.. theres not patient care anymore and they only want to do whats necessary and bugger the rest.. i should not say any more only that ive worked with many dentists in the past and yes there are some really good ones .. but it seems to me if you ask any questions they dont like to think you are questioning there competence, although at the end of the day its our mouthes and we have to put our trust in them. some are totally arrogant and only want to see certain patients... say no more ! all i would say is dont be afraid to complain because unless you do it will never change !!!!!!!!!!!!!
My wife and I have only recently started to use the NHS after our private dentist (a friend) retired.
The overwhelming impression is that dentists have now become salesmen, and seek to flog treatment that is outside the NHS available treatment by a combination of subtle pressure and technical bullsh*t.
I was told one of my teeth could be extracted on the NHS, but that if I wanted to opt for root canal work, although this could be done on the NHS, there would be a high risk (60%) of failure, but if I elected to go to a private root canal specialist, (£400) this would be a better option.
I suspect the NHS dentist could be in line for a referral fee from the specialist, which would be included in this sum - can anyone confirm or otherwise if this practice is prevalent ?
Why should a properly trained NHS dentist not be capable of root canal work to a high standard ? It's not brain surgery !!
My dentist is always keen to push the scale and polish option, which l object to.You put your trust in these professionals and assume they have your best interest at heart
As a dental professional it is interesting to see how some comments are harsh.
On the NHS System
Example: removal of tooth NHS Band 2 ie £47.00 time 30 mins
Filling of tooth NHS Band 2 ie £47.00 time 45 mins
root canal followed by filling Band 2 £47.00 3 hours in divided appointments
mind you costs and overheads are not included not to mention professional registrations and indemnities. I would rather not do a compromised job and question my ethics in this situation.
You do not go to Sainsbury or Tesco or Waitrose and say that I am only going to pay in three bands irrespective of what I pick from the shelf.
In reality the NHS system is a failed system which I reiterate that the Government fails to admit and trust me it is getting worse.
Dentistry is a skill with the use of materials hence you pay for what you get and not a standard rate for everything.
You can buy a Ford Focus or a Bentley, the price varies on craftsmanship and materials and yet they are both cars and modes of transport.
After 5 years of training, then another 2 years of intern ship and optional postgraduation which could take several years, I think dentists deserve to charge according to their skill level and time. Besides you only pay and undergo treatment that you have understood and agreed before hand.
To the gentleman who thinks its a root canal and not brain surgery, I wonder if a brain surgeon could do root canal ? as dentist train almost the same amount of time.
UK dentists (in London at least) seem to only be interested in how much money they can extract. They overcharge for extremely poor shoddy work,claim practically nothing is available on the NHS (even when it is) if they do do NHS work it is done at an even lower and shoddier standard. Most of my friends in London are from other countries and I have lived in several countries round the world, unfortunately having been in London for the last fifteen years I have seen my teeth destroyed by one 2nd rate dentist after another. Among my friends there is almost universal fear of having to go to a dentist in London. I know of several people who have had ''dental nightmares'' having been treated in the UK and only avoided serious health problems having fled abroad for treatment. I don't know if it is because British dental training/standards have become so poor over the years or it is the greed/flyboy culture that has come to dominate that is the problem. If you have anyway of going elsewhere for treatment - I can only say do it. I wish to hell I had.
Hi everybody,
I am a dentist and setting up a private dental practice ( no NHS funding is available).I would be very grateful if you could tell me what prices YOU think is reasonable for examination,xrays,clean,filling,gold crowns ,white crowns, having a tooth out,emergency visits,implants and hygienist? Thanks.
I went private (denplan) after NHS dentist literally runied my smile - its the best direct debit I have and id give up all other luxury before giving up my denplan. My dentist has rebuilt my blue teeth (the metal fillings showed through the tooth) so I can chew again. Since I moved over I have not had a filling and my teeth are fine, yet when I left my NHS dentist it was because he wanted to fill 7 yes 7 more of my teeth. I simply did not need anything doing! Also on a side note my bad breath was cured by having the teeth rebuilt properly so they can be cleaned - amazing! Not to mention my children getting the same excellent service with the same dentist even though they are NHS. In my experience NHS was so very expensive for such poor treatment and denplan though not cheap encourages me to go very regularly with out any scary bills afterwards. Not paying for denplan was false economy for me.
Absolutely agree with KMAN35. I personally seen as doctor drilled my teeth and did not even washed and dried it afterwards just blowed with air and put the filling. This way they make it rotten in near future making sure you will come back again. The problem is it is hard to prove what they have done hence they are getting away with it.
On the other hand I do blame the dentist prices being high (VERY high) in the UK. For the price of private treatment I can fly to Azerbaijan do a propper treatement and come back and save money. So the question is why the prices are so high here? It is definately not the supplies costly as suppliers are almost the same in Azerbaijan!
I am getting an impression that majority of the dentist in the UK simply liars!
Dear Dentist, I do understand you stydied for years and would like to highlight that dentists are not the only preofession requiring studying. The issue is not in charging fair amount it is in having a fairnes when accepting NHS clients. If a doctor accepted one then he should treat one as a fully paid customer forgetting about NHS. Unfortunately some doctors are using NHS as bate to mislead us.
There were BBC Panorama last year showing almost every visited dentist was lying/misleading by saying this is not covered by NHS.