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Dentists


Guest Peter James

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Guest Peter James
Posted

Did anybody else see the Channel 4 Dispatches TV investigation on Dentists this week?

 

I was pleasantly surprised that at last we were seeing an investigation into the 'professions' All the others I have seen have been investigations into cowboy builders, garages, etc, never anything like this. It was as though they supposed all Dentists, Doctors, Lawyers etc etc were incapable of greed and dishonesty *-)

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/articles/the-truth-about-your-dentist

Guest pelmetman
Posted
Eh? 8-) ........corrupt professionals 8-) ...............Your be telling me next MP's fiddle their expenses :D
Guest Peter James
Posted
The NHS dentist situation seems to have changed somewhat. It is no longer difficult to find a NHS registered dentist. The problem is the dentists featured take people on the NHS, then when they are laid back in the chair with their mouth open tell them the work they need cannot be done properly on the NHS - a blatant lie. It showed Private only dentists averaging £140,000 salaries, with NHS/Private dentists averaging £160,000 salaries. Suggesting the NHS dentists were using their NHS credentials to get people in, then telling them they would need to pay extra.
Posted
And as if to prove the point.........My wife went to a new dentist who was taking on NHS patients. She had broken a tooth and need to have a Crown fitted. They treated her initially and told her she would need to come back at a later date to have the Crown fitted. She is a teacher and can only get away from school after 4pm, her appointment came through for mid-afternoon and when she rang them to ask for a later appointment (after 4pm) she was told that those time slots were only available to Private Patients. She did not succumb and managed to get her Headmistress to arrange some cover at school for her whilst she attended the appointment.
Guest Peter James
Posted

They have a name for that - they call it 'Gaming', which is finding excuses for switching patients from standard NHS charges to more expensive private charges.

For example, the current system gives standard charges for fillings, about £50 however many are required to last for the next 12 months. On some of these jobs the dentist will obviously make more profit than others, on some he could even make a loss. But they balance each other out to give an good overall profit. However, this is not enough for the greedy dentist. So he pretends the less profitable jobs cannot be done on the NHS standard charges.

 

Guest peter
Posted

So, what's new? Dentists always have looked in a patients mouth and seen £50 notes. Often doing a load of uneccessary work to bump up the charges. Plus charging for work not done at all.

How many of us remember being asked to sign for the work before it's even been finished and not checked what we're signing for.

Guest Peter James
Posted

I'm 57, and recall when I was about 12 I used to go to the dentist every 6 months where he would always prescribe about 3 fillings. He was running a Porsche out of it. So I stopped going and found it was about 20 years before I actually needed another filling. But that has changed in that dentists now have a fixed NHS charge to discourage unneccesary work. Nowadays they pick and choose which jobs they want to do under the NHS. Its no longer difficult to find a NHS dentist, just one who will honour his NHS contract.

I think whats really new is that we now have an undercover TV investigation into Dentists, wheras previously they only had these investigations into the working classes - garages, plumbers etc.

 

Incidentally, I wonder if this will develop into more objective coverage of the police?

The American cops undercover TV series 'Cops Uncut' is just that - it shows bad coppers as well as bad members of the public. That appears to be edited out of the British TV series (A great earner for the production company as they have such low overheads and production costs - they just have to stay on the right side of the police to be allowed to film)

The only time we see a bad copper on British TV is when a member of the public happens to be nearby with a mobile phone, as when the cop killed the innocent Ian Tomlinson. You actually see cops doing things like that on the American TV 'Cops Uncut'

Guest pelmetman
Posted
Peter James - 2011-06-01 11:51 AM

 

I'm 57, and recall when I was about 12 I used to go to the dentist every 6 months where he would always prescribe about 3 fillings. He was running a Porsche out of it. So I stopped going and found it was about 20 years before I actually needed another filling. But that has changed in that dentists now have a fixed NHS charge to discourage unneccesary work. Nowadays they pick and choose which jobs they want to do under the NHS. Its no longer difficult to find a NHS dentist, just one who will honour his NHS contract.

I think whats really new is that we now have an undercover TV investigation into Dentists, wheras previously they only had these investigations into the working classes - garages, plumbers etc.

 

 

I bet if a survey was done of people of our age, you would find most of us received unnecessary fillings *-)

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