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NHS v PRIVATE When It Comes To Bridges, Flippers, etc?

T

TwoThirty22

Member
Joined
May 9, 2016
Messages
40
There was a really interesting 'Call You and Your's' on Radio 4 this week about NHS dentistry and the way the dentists are being paid, affecting various things, treatment-wise.

One caller or one of the experts, I forget, mentioned bridges etc not being as good or even remotely state of the art, on the NHS. Which got me wondering...

I have gone private, despite believing passionately in the NHS, my whole life, as I recognised early on I would only get the level of care and TLC I needed as a phobic, to even get me into the building! My husband is NHS - his appointments are 15 minute slots. And even then he's rushed. He's not phobic or anxious so doesn't mind. My appointments are as long as they need to be and I'm never rushed. I'm treated with kid gloves because, I suspect, I'm a customer, at the end of the day. I like being a customer. I get scared when I'm a 'patient'.

We're on a very low income and in the past few years of tory *friend of the working man* rule, have had to cut and cut again. Literally my last 'luxury' left is my Denplan and frankly, if it didn't go out the first day of the month, I'd not be able to pay it. That's how important keeping on track has been to me. I thought I had this phobia beaten and just felt slightly inconvenienced by the dentist but then I somehow avoided a year's check ups and hygiene and am back to square one. Yet am so glad I kept Denplan as now an old root canalled tooth finally fell apart (it was always badly cracked and had lasted me a few years). Extraction tomorrow.

I can't afford a bridge yet (lab fees over £200) but have enough for the lab fees for a temporary fake tooth and can save up what I need for a bridge over the months that healing will happen.

My thought is - what if I'd lapsed my Denplan and now was reliant on an NHS dentist? Would I even have been offered an immediate? Or would I have had a huge gap in my smile (tooth is a lower front)..? And if I got a bridge, would it be clumpy? (Presumably one paid for by insurers will be the best I can get?)

I'm so glad now I continued finding the money to pay Denplan, even though it has been a terrible struggle. Recently got an exemption cert thing thorugh the post saying we're entitled to free things on the NHS - so I probably would be paying nothing if I went to the husband's dentist. But would there really be a difference in the immediate denture/bridge if I was now using the NHS?

This has made me determined to stay private, however hard it is to find the money, at least til I have a bridge sorted.

Occurred to me a while back when I had an inlay as well - someone told me I'd never have got that on the NHS. It is spectacularly good and just looks like a natural, unfilled tooth. I'm told that molar would probably have been extracted if I went to an NHS dentist...

So are the bridges done by labs for private dentists etc better, or is it a myth? Would I have got an inlay on the NHS? Would I have got an immediate, like I'm getting tomorrow? Genuinely curious, as it has been so hard for me to find the money to stay private!

(Could only afford the lab fees as I got a small unexpected windfall, last week!)
 
Hi to answer your questions

Someone I know got a gold inlay on the nhs because it was deemed the tooth needed it.

I had a front lower tooth out about 9 months ago and got an immediate denture, after 6 months and everything had healed and my gum had stopped shrinking down I got a bridge. It looks like my own tooth and matches in with my own teeth. It is down to the dentist and the labs they use as to how good things are. You are part of the process of colour matching the bridge. My bridge isn't clumpy and feels better than the tooth it replaced.
 
That's nice to know, Carole! I was thinking from what they were saying on the radio, I did the right thing staying private but it's reassuring to know that when this is over, if I have to find an NHS dentist, there's some hope!
 
I go to a dentist that is the owner of the practice and he has a lovely female dentist that does the nhs stuff. She is excellent and he insists that nhs patients have the treatment they need. It seems that if you can find a smallish practice owner occupied that offers both private and nhs you get better treated.

My dentist is off now having a baby and he is taking over from here until she gets back, rather than replacing her with a temp, this impressed me very much as he is a lovely man.

I hope you are lucky enough to find one as good as mine when you have to give up going private. They are out there, sometimes you just have to try a few until you find one.

There is nothing to stop you seeing as many dentists as you want to find the right one for you.

All the best and good luck
 
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