nhs dentists

anyone know how to get one?

my bf had severe tooth ache. we have tried the "emergancy dental helpline" which gets you a lovely woman on the other end telling you that you have reached a hospital and it doesnt do dental, so we tried nhs direct which gets you someone else telling you to call the "emergancy dental helpline"and giving the same number again, so we tried our local medical helpline who told us that we must have dialled the wrong number the 1st time but that they could patch us through (mmm i love being patronised), we then got the original hospital telling us that they really were not anything to do with dentistry.

we have tried every nhs dentist in our area and in my parents area and come up with nothing so we had to go private. the private dentist has treated the pain and said that the real problem needs £620 (estimate) of treatment which we cant afford.

anyone have any clue what we can do because there is no info we can find on the net or any useful helplines.

Reply 1

ShinyApple

Find an NHS dentist in your area and ask them where to go. For treatment you need to find one without a waiting list. If he's a student of a university there will be a place for university students to go to which will help smooth things for you.

If you let me know what the problem is then I can probably tell you how much an NHS dentist will charge.

Edit: It is a sad fact that many dentists were pushed into private dental care a while back (pre-labour for the political amongst us). There simply aren't enough NHS dentists to go round, and when you do find one you have to stick to them like glue.

Reply 2

high priestess fnord

ShinyApple

If you let me know what the problem is then I can probably tell you how much an NHS dentist will charge.

4 extractions, all his wisdom teeth. some weird problem with him having fragments of teeth coming through but they arent fully formed, one is actually growing into his other teeth and it hurts. no nhs dentists will have him they just say that they arent taking on patients, thats why we went private in the 1st place. but we cant affort £620 worth of surgery.

im guessing your studying dentistry or something? is there some sort of waiting list you can get on? there must be some way of dealing with patients when the dentists arent taking anyone on.

*edit* there arent enough dentists full stop, its not just an nhs problem, i had to do a very long car journey to get my bf to the only private dentist who would see him within a week. one said May for an emergancy appointment. its not nice to have to tell someone whos is screaming in pain that it may be months before it can be sorted

Reply 3

Thud

i've the same problem finding a dentist, 5months of toothache is not nice (thanks mr blair!).

what i recommend (though haven't had time to do it myself yet) is to go to the dental school at your university. At mine they do a free dental service provided you get there early in the morning.

Reply 4

Juncture

http://www.nhs.uk/England/Dentists/NearestSearch.aspx

i know you sorted out your problem, but if you need to find a dentist you can search on that and it tells you whether they're still taking NHS patients, or just patients in general etc.

Reply 5

high priestess fnord

we tried that site and came up blank. seems we are back at square one because we cant afford the surgery privately but there is no info on any nhs help.

Reply 6

her0n

Ohhi HPFnord :wink:

I'm not really gonna be much use here but one thing i'd recommend is keeping a close eye on when new dental practises open up in the surrounding towns (easier said than done :/). Within the last few years we moved nhs dental practises with no trouble to one that had just opened and was accepting new patients.

I'm actually surprised that the company your bf works for doesn't offer some sort of health insurance plan. I mean, its not exactly like the company can't afford it ;<

Wish him my best,

H

Reply 7

high priestess fnord

thanks heron, health insurance may cover it but we arent sure and even if it does we have to pay upfront and then claim it back months later, tis going to be a struggle.

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