What do you think of this dental charge?

Question

I had been suffering from toothache/infection off and on. Last Sunday during lunch, my old filling of several years just dropped.
On diagnosis, I was told that the tooth that it came from was broken. He extracted it and charged me £75.00. With the anaesthetic and x-ray it took about 10 minutes max. How has your experience been?

Answer 1

Dentist charges should be covered by a government plan. Eye's & teath are too expensive for people to keep up with.

Answer 2

My dentist told me about 8 months ago that I could have a filling replaced or have an extraction. They both cost the same-£42 on The NHS. i had the filling.

Answer 3

Up in in Scotland on the NHS that would have cost you £13.72 in total. and the Governament would have given the dentist a further £3.43 making a total of £17.15.
That would have to cover the costs of the materials used(Such as anaesethics, needle, gauze as well as pay nurse's wages, receptionist wages, all the surgery overheads, pay for the sterilisation of the instruments.
Even though it only took about 10 minutes, it then takes about 5 minutes to disinfect the surgery and all the work tops to the required standards.

This is one of the reasons that NHS dentistry is no longer available in many parts of the UK.

Answer 4

Seems an odd charge because the new NHS charges come in 3 categories and it seems like you should have been charged the 2nd.
£15.50 - This charge includes an examination, diagnosis and preventive care. If necessary, this includes X-rays, scale and polish, and planning for further treatment.

Urgent and out-of-hours care also costs £15.50.

OR
£42.40 - This charge includes all necessary treatment covered by the £15.50 charge PLUS additional treatment such as fillings, root canal treatment or extractions.

OR
£189 -This charge includes all necessary treatment covered by the £15.50 and £42.40 charges PLUS more complex procedures such as crowns, dentures or bridges.

Answer 5

this is weird, (apparently) dentists used to charge depending on what they DID rather than how long they spent, so to get more money they would say you need loadsa fillings and do as many as possible but not spend much time so they arent very good and fall out. then they started charging on how long they spent so you pay for them taking their time and doing a good job. this seems to have swapped back around now.

i dont see how this works though, a dishonest dentist will rip you off as much as he likes under both pay schemes.

this price seems perfectly normal

Answer 6

On the NHS that should have cost you £42.40 and thats the standard fee, if you saw a private dentist or you are not a patient at this particular practice then i am afraid they can charge what they like.

Answer 7

Not sure what the conversion is, but it costs about $100 USD for a 'simple' extraction on this side of the pond.

Answer 8

I have to have a veneer replaced on the front of one of my teeth. As it is cosmetic the NHS wouldn't pay anyway, but it is £138.00.
Emmylou, I wish I had been a dentist too. The only thing is looking in all those manky mouths wouldn't appeal.

Answer 9

I am thinking that is 75 pounds and that makes it about $130. US dollars. Right? That doesn't sound too expensive. (I am guessing)

Here they have flat rates for what they do.

So are you starting to feel better. My Husband had the same thing several years ago, eating nuts he broke a molar.

Answer 10

I hate the dentist but i still go cause theres nothing worse than tooth ache