£98 a session for root canal treatment to two teeth on the NHS (£294 for the three sessions in all), £1,200 for the same work done privately.Millymollymandy wrote:Can you explain this one to me please?
When I was last in the UK you had to pay a lot of money even on the NHS for dental work.
We can just afford the first, but not the second.
As for the emergency dental hospital, yes, there is one in Aberdeen but it has limited hours and also covers the Highlands (which doesn't have one) so it gets a lot of patients. It is staffed by students getting in their practice, but you still get turned away as there are always more people needing treatment than dentists and trainee dentists.
And why should we sell the croft to pay for dental treatment that we've both paid out a bundle for in National Insurance and taxes?
I wouldn't have such a problem if we paid less NI or tax, and were expected to go private. Or got a rebate of NI if we went private. But when you're expected to pay NI and then again if you want treatment any time this century, it's outrageous. Especially when the NHS treatment is often - but not always - second class.
I was lucky when I had to have two severely impacted wisdom teeth extracted a few years ago as the NHS in England said it could be up to six months. I mentioned it in passing to my then boss, who said "oh, I think you're now on the managerial package so you get free private dental".
Free dental turned out to mean a private hospital that was better than most five-star hotels, one of the top oral and maxillofacial surgeons in the UK (scores of publications to his name, a dozen awards for surgical advances etc), and the best pre-op and post-op medical care I've experienced anywhere in the world. While I think some of it was a bit OTT, I do think that level of care and concern for the patient should be the standard for the NHS. (Three star hotel and a middle of the road dental surgeon would have been fine!)
Idiots... my baby was born 40 mins later 
