My dad had an abscess develop early on a holiday through an area of America and Canada. It was a special trip so they wouldn't cut it short for that. He walked up to a dentist in a small town in America trying to be seen. The dentist wasn't open but there was a number. He called it and spoke directly to the dentist who cut short his weekend and dragged in his dental nurse too, just to see my dad. In fact I think it was the local pharmacist who my dad saw and who called his mate the dentist.
Anyway within a few hours the dental surgery was opened just for my dad and he got seen. It was cleaned out and he got given antibiotics. Asked for the bill the dentist said no charge but he hoped the abscess didn't ruin his holiday. It didn't the abscess died down in a day or so, as did his swollen face. Apparently it was a really bad one. They went on to have a great holiday.
Anyway, I mean no offence to you Janne, but here in the UK I've not met a dentist surgery that wasn't run by a pure money grabbing b'st@rd since I was a kid. I have a very good solution to the lack of good dentistry without going fully private. I don't go to the dentist. Currently about 5 years. Apart from the few years before that when I went every year for the years (when I found a reasonable, south African nhs dentist) it was running at a dentist visit every 7 years since I reached 18. I don't advise it but I look after my teeth and I am to have a good teeth and gums gene thing going on. No filings, issues with gums or anything. So for me a dentist visit consists of an hour sat in the waiting room (IIRC dentists run an hour late even early in the morning round here) followed by 2 minutes in the chair. Then to be told to come back in 6 months for another checkup. If I ever find a good NHS dentist near be I'll consider one visit every 17 months. That's the timescale you can go to without them knocking you off their list. Officially it's 12 months but they never knock you off then but give you another 6 months before your files get buried somewhere the administrator won't go searching for it ime.
My questions to Janne are, have you ever worked in the UK for an NHS practise? And is there anything worse than this private system trying to hang on / claim to be part of our NHS system? Perhaps not the questions for this thread sorry!
No offense taken on anything, the spirit of this thread is you can ask or claim anything, even the nastiest stuff about me ( if you are a former patient of mine from East Sussex
) and I will try to explain.
With perfectly healthy teeth and adequate oral hygiene there is no need to see a dentist. The vast majority of manking has done since Eve tri ked poor Adam into the ‘9 - 5 plus overtime’ World!
I tell the patient i have with perfect oral health ( no fillings, no gum disease, good oral hygiene) to see me once every 1.5 years. To see them more often is a waste of ny time and their money.
We are supposed to taylor individual recall times. Dirty diseased patients I see once every 3 months ( perio cleanings) and try not to see the perfect mouth patients more than a year and a half or do.
I do still want to see them as it is goid to have your mouth, neck checked for tumors and cancers, plus in the Tropics where I live I also check for skin cancers.
Money. We all need to make money. To cover costs. To live. But there is a line between making money and being greedy.
Greed is todays Mantra everywhere I think.
In Dentistry, patients have not a clue about what we do inside the mouth, and if it is needed. Patients trust us, and unfortunately many dentists abuse this trust.
Happens in many professions of course.
That is sad.
In fact, when I go to Dental Conferences ( try to go once every year) a large % of courses is about making more money. ‘Work smarter not harder’. ‘Use the system to your benefit’. ‘(Treatment) Codes you did not think of using’
I go to US and Canada for these conferences.
But it is the same in Europe.
