Hello,

I am sure someone will know, How does the charging of NHS dentist treatment work? I know I have to pay as I am not exempt and I know there are three price bands, £15.90, £43.60 and £194 for bands 1,2 and 3. It says in the literature that the cost covers a course of treatment. What is a course of treatment?

Band 2 £43.60 includes fillings, root canal work. Is a course of treatment meant as if I need say 5 fillings I would only pay £43.60 or it that 5 courses of treatment so 5x £46.50. It does say if you needed a filling within 2 months of having your last one you would not neeed to oay again, which suggests in the case above the 5 fillings would cost just £43.60 total.

Any clarification would be gratefully recieved as I have not been to the dentist for a while so do not know how it works. However the examples of 5 fillings was just in theory and am hoping I do not need any.

thanks in advance for any help.

quote:

What is a course of treatment?

Think of it this way. You go along for a checkup. Dentist says you need three fillings, and a further two appointments to achieve those. A total of three appointments, including the checkup ..... all that is a course of treatment.

After that work you are given a clean bill of dental health, and told, "come back in 6 months for another checkup". If you do so that would amount to the start of a new course of treatment.

Does that help?

it certainly helps thanks John, I just always thought it was reallly expensive for dental treatment but it would seem this way it is not that expensive.

thanks again

I would not bother with the NHS dentists; I use a fantastic Dentist in BKK she charges the same price for Thai and farang to give you an idea on price she gave me a check up and clean for 500BHT, which was the best clean I have ever had ,and took 35 minutes ,the UK dentist I used before took ten minutes and charged £55.00

quote:

the UK dentist I used before took ten minutes and charged £55.00

its not that much on the NHS.

my dentist is NHS and a check up and clean is just over £15.last time i had a check up, clean and filling on the NHS and it was less than £50.

and as for children well you can't beat the NHS as all treatment is free! (at the point of service).

I think the dental fees are worked out the same as the council tax and are therefore unexpected, high and you don't get the results that you thought you had paid for.

You really need to speak to your dentist about the costs as they are the only ones that can provide it, you also want to check that this includes follow/check ups as otherwise, as John says, you could be charged very high follow up fees!

My advice is that if you need a fair bit of treatment then get the quotes from your dentist, go to Thailand (or Poland/Hungary etc) get the treatment done and then laugh at an all expenses paid!

Nice that Government changes to dentistry have been painless, self explainatory, given us all so much more choice and saved us money too NOT