NHS dental practices

[Foxglove]

Whilst I appreciate that this situation revolves around the state of the NHS dental service in England, I would be interested in hearing the views of people who live outside of England here. It has long been the situation in England that finding an NHS practice taking on new patients can be impossible, leaving some people unable to get NHS dental care and having to either do without dental care or going private which is very costly. Having enough money to go private may be an option for some people (whether paying for treatment as required or by taking out dental insurance) but this leaves a lot of people still unable to afford dental care.

Full BBC story

It concerns me that NHS dental services should be available to all but due to reforming dental practices over the past few years has meant that many dentists are now only seeing private patients and there are fewer and fewer NHS dentists to take on new patients. If you move area or for some reason are no longer on a dentist's patient list (some become private only dentists but don't always warn all current NHS patients that they will be doing so), finding an NHS dentist is often problematic. My concern is that the people who are losing out on care will be those who already have money concerns and dental health becomes a matter that a person feels is not as important as other monetary concerns so they do not receive regular check ups. This leads to dental problems not being seen early and can cause many health problems by not addressing these early. Surely the cost of dealing with problems later will only lead to higher costs to the NHS later on.

The survey mentioned in the BBC report mentions people pulling their own teeth, using glue to fix problems and so on. This cannot be a good thing.

I notice though that this apepars to be only a problem in England. So, how does the Scottish dental service work? Do all people who wish to have NHS dental checks have the option to find a dentist to carry necessary checks and work out? Does Scotland have a set rate system for differing work?

To my mind, prevention is better than cure, so it makes sense to me that all people requiring check ups and work should be able to have the option of such procedures or checks to be carried out under the NHS. Not having the option to do so is unacceptable. I also wonder if by not providing NHS services for all people requiring such will ultimately result in increased costs to the NHS when mouth and dental problems become serious.

[Devastator]

I've been with the same dentist since I was about 8, and I've only just started paying for treatment so it's never been a problem for me thankfully. In saying that, my gran and grandpa now travel across Glasgow to go because they were advised not to try and change practice, because they probably wouldn't be able to.

[TSR]

i'm sure i've seen a news report where 1 dentist was opening or someone was going private and there was a massive queue to get on another dentists list...i think it might have been a new 1 opening

never been an issue for me cos i've been with the same dentist since birth...or something like that
not sure if it's done on the insurance, though. i pay part, if not all...but i also know my dad has me on bupa. hmmmm....
*wanders off to think*

[dil_em_ma]

My dentist was nhs until a few years ago. She now only takes under 18s as nhs patients. I'm now paying a few quid a month and that gets me free check ups. Not sure what else it covers though.

[GreatKingRat]

After recently moving to Portsmouth, I've simply been told by the locals not to bother even trying to get an NHS dentist. My sister has lived here for 10 years and has always had to go private.

Edit: Although saying that, I had absolutely no problem getting NHS treatment in Liverpool (in my only emergency, it was resolved in around 4 hours from calling the NHS to walking out of the surgery with a numb mouth), so I guess it depends where you go.