Have I been ripped off?
Posted by ParamedicSouthern842@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 33 comments
So I have a massive fear of dentists and so I havnt been many times, and I haven't been in many years. Obviously, my teeth are bad by this point and last week I was biting into some food when a bit of peppercorn cracked my wisdom tooth. This happened in the evening and I was in such agony I couldn't sleep all night. Once the morning came I had resigned myself to booking in an extraction with a dentist, I looked on Google and found one just a minute walk away so I called them.
I explained I needed a wisdom tooth extracted and explained my situation, and they booked me in to come in in two days time, taking £50 deposit for the appointment, but warned me that if it was infected I would need to do a course of antibiotics first. This was all fine by me, I just needed my tooth out.
When I went to the appointment though, I was sat in the chair, the dentist took a quick look, wholeheartedly agreed with me that it needed to come out ASAP, but then told me they don't do that kind of extraction at this dentists and he called up a specialist and arranged an appointment for me with them. Then he marched me to the desk and made sure I was booked in for the following month for some aftercare work and to "start the real work of getting my mouth in shape" I was then charged a further £150 for the appointment.
The specialist I had been referred to then called me later that day to inform me they had my X rays sent over from first dentist but they need to do their own consultation appointment with me and so I needed to pay £120 over the phone for that appointment. At this point I'm still very much in pain and needing treatment so I agree and pay, then they tell me that it's going to be £470 for the extraction I need.
The next day, I wake up and the pain has finally subsided and I can think clearly again for the first time in a few days, at this point I pour over my financial situation and realise that there is absolutely no way I can pay out a further £470 and still be able to pay bills and feed my kids this month, so I am forced to cancel my appointment with the specialist. They offer no refund.
So at this point I'm £320 down, it's been over a week and I have received zero treatment. What I'm feeling upset about is the first dentist I saw though, I feel like if they don't offer wisdom tooth removal they should have told me when I called instead of inviting me in for treatment. As it stands I payed them £200 so they could book me in with another dentist, something I could have done myself and saved a lot of time, time which I spent in constant pain. Im not at all used to dentists and how they work though, is this all normal practice?
Im not upset about paying people for their time, it's more that I feel by accepting me as a patient they wasted both our time. And that £200 is quite significant to me, without that expense I would have had enough funds to covet the treatment I need had I gone straight to a dentist that provided that service.
If for example I had booked an appointment with a hair stylist saying I wanted a mohawk, and they accepted and invited me in for a session just to tell me they don't do mohawks there but they know someone who does and charged me for the privilege of letting them book the appointment for me with someone else, that would clearly be ripping me off and that's how I'm feeling about this dentist. Would I be justified in complaining to them, or is this normal practice?
Buddy-Matt@reddit
So, the £200 is most likely the consultation charge for the dentist you found on Google. You'll need to check their website/price list to confirm.
The place they referred you to for the wisdom extraction most likely only accepts people via referrals, and not walk ins. So being referred is standard practise. Bear in mind that wisdom teeth are extremely difficult to reach, may have complicated roots, and could require non standard pain relief, such as sedation. It's entirely reasonable a high street dental practise may not be set up to deliver this, thus the referral only specialist.
In short, £200 is eyewatering for a consultation, but not unheard for private practises, and referral is common practise.
Tbh, I think your mistake was googling and going to the closest dentist. Dentistry via the NHS has been utterly fucked for a few years now, so the rise in private practises also means soaring medical costs given the lack of competition from the free-at-point-of-service competition. However, there are still NHS and emergence NHS dentists around, and you should have been able to get a non-routine emergency appointment with one. If your tooth acts up again, I'd recommend this approach. But be aware, a wisdom tooth extraction in the NHS still costs about 75 quid (unless you're exempt)
ParamedicSouthern842@reddit (OP)
Ok so looking on their website, they say £150 for an emergency appointment with no treatment (x-rays included) which is what I got, so sounds like perhaps the receptionist forgot to take my £50 deposit off of the charge
The place I was referred to does have its own website and welcomes new patients
I do agree my mistake was choosing the closest one, I just wasnt thinking clearly, I have no experience with dentists and the NHS website said there wasnt any NHS dentists in my area. After a night of no sleep and the worst pain I have felt in my life, and I have severed a finger before, I just wanted something done so called the first one I found that was close with good ratings.
spnelson@reddit
I was charged £29 for an emergency wisdom tooth removal through NHS. If the pain is that bad then call 111 and sort it this way
Electrical_Bet_9699@reddit
Are you in Scotland?
spnelson@reddit
No, why?
inide@reddit
When I had to have 3 wisdom teeth extracted at the same time I was booked in to the hospital for 8am and put under general anesthetic for the morning (and then woke up with 4 bottom teeth and a mouth full of stitches, after being warned "we may need to remove the adjacent teeth in order to extract the wisdom teeth safely, the dentist will make the final decision during the surgery")
Definitely not something a regular practice would offer on-site.
Death_By_Stere0@reddit
I was booked in for all 4 to be removed under general anaesthesia at a hospital, but when I arrived the next day the anaesthetist was off sick.
Therefore they could only do it under local, which they told me could take HOURS. I was only 17, but I was fucked if I was gonna sit there the whole bloody day with my gob clamped open while they chipped away at my jaw bones!
I did end up having 1 taken out in my 20s and it was awful, so I congratulated my teenaged self for making a good decision.
However, now I'm in my 40s and my wisdom teeth are so impacted they are basically sideways, which has caused other teeth to get loosened. So it looks like I have even more tooth removals in my future. FML.
pentiac@reddit
Dentistry in the uk has really declined with highly expensive cost of such work, its high time that British dentists and there refusal to do work on the NHS should be looked and acted upon by the Government, we are becoming a nation of rotten teeth because outlandish charges have become normal and our mouths are becoming neglected, something new needs to be introduced to the public as a service to fight against the growing greed that is spreading like wildfire amongst British Dentists, Dentists are no longer a public service and are only there for you if you have funds to pay, British Dentistry, a modern rip off and joke of a service that is seemingly able to charge what they like at full cost to the customer, as the Dentists no longer seem to want to offer a public service then perhaps they should be treated in the same manner by other services.
benz76428@reddit
you have to go to wisdom teeth specialists, i got refered to them by my dentist once. that will be why they couldnt do the extraction atleast
Serberou5@reddit
That's ridiculous. My wisdom tooth cracked I filled out this form
https://111.nhs.uk/guided-entry/dental-help
Got a call in 2 hours saw an emergency dentist who wasn't any kind of specialist and they just pulled it out and it just cost the NHS emergency fee of just over£30.
To me you have been royally ripped off l..
Electrical_Bet_9699@reddit
That’s not an NHS emergency fee in England and Wales BTW. If you are charged anything other than £27.40 for an emergency appointment it is not NHS treatment.
Serberou5@reddit
It was obviously just under £30 then I was probably in pain when I paid it.
ParamedicSouthern842@reddit (OP)
Thank you! This is really helpful, hopefully
Serberou5@reddit
No problem good luck!
Greedy_Asparagus6664@reddit
I am a dentist.
Personally I would have charged you a fee for the examination (£50) and the xray would be included in that. The extraction would have been £145. Most teeth are fine to be taken out by any dentist, but some wisdom teeth do need specialist treatment if it is impacted or close to the nerve etc. In this case I would’ve referred you to my usual specialist (no fee for the referral), and then the specialist would charge you for the difficult extraction (£250 I think it is off the top of my head).
To be fair to the dentist, they probably would have taken the tooth out of it was a simple one, and there is no way to know whether it is simple or not without seeing you first and taking the xray, so I’d say the first fee was unavoidable and justified. The specialist wanting to carry out their own examination is also warranted imo. And obviously the specialist would charge you appropriately for the treatment.
I would query what exactly you have been charged for. Sounds like you were charged £200 emergency appointment by the first dentist, £120 for an exam by the specialist, and £470 for the extraction by the specialist. If this is the case it sounds like you have been charged the right things and the dentist has correctly identified a tricky extraction and referred to to the right place, but I do also think those fees are very high.
If you wanted to, you could ask your dentist for the X-rays to save money and save the need to take them again. Then find yourself a cheaper specialist oral surgeon privately, or you could ask to be referred on the NHS waiting list but the wait is generally pretty long depending where in the country you are.
ParamedicSouthern842@reddit (OP)
Thanks for weighing in! Yeah that sounds more like what I was expecting things to cost, an expensive lesson to learn. I hadn't realised costs could vary quite so much.
JarJarBinksSucks@reddit
Unfortunately that is the cost of private dental care. NHS dental care is amazing and well priced. There is a price cap for work done and it raises in tiers. Unfortunately trying to find the NHS dentist is the hard part
Darkness----@reddit
Depending on location and assuming you're seeing a private dentist this is pretty accurate although it's unfortunate they say they don't do that kind of extraction which sounds unusual, maybe this is specific to your case and needs special treatment and is not a routine extraction even if it is a wisdom tooth.
DMC_addict@reddit
My wisdom teeth had to be extracted in hospital, I don’t think it’s that unusual.
plant-cell-sandwich@reddit
111 will refer to an emergency dentist to take it out of you're in pain
SparklyEarrings@reddit
I recently had a wisdom tooth removed. Called a dentist for an emergency appointment, and had it seen and sorted on the same day for £75. That was NHS.
They did emergency NHS appointments, but had no spaces for new patients. I've since found a new NHS dentist and for the other wisdom tooth I'm having removed, it was £27 for an initial consultation, and it'll be £75 in a few weeks for removal.
I don't know about your area, but in mine most dentists will offer you emergency treatment on the NHS even if they can't sign you up to their surgery. I've had a filling done in the past like that, too.
MGNConflict@reddit
Sounds shady yes, my last two wisdom extractions including x-rays were £250 and £260 (each at the other end of the country to one another), so that’ll probably be in the region I’d expect you to pay.
Aftercare for the second one was provided at no charge, I suffered from dry socket and the appointments for that were included in the price.
Calm_Supermarket_470@reddit
Dentistry is expensive. All medical and clinical support is expensive, but mostly covered by the NHS, evidently dentistry being an exception (in that it's not consistently covered or available).
You should have been charged for a checkup, which is about £50 to £80. X-rays to diagnose would have been another £60 or so. And there might have been some additional procedures / items used. You should have an itemised invoice from them which tells you what they have charged you for. If it was just £200 for the consultation, and no other activity done, then you've chosen a very expensive dentist.
Anxious-Molasses9456@reddit
Its not a commercial service like hair cuts, you have to go through a consultation before they will treat you
RAME0000000000000000@reddit
Get it done on the NHS, will cost alot less.
avalanchefan95@reddit
Right. In a decade.
Tired-of-this-world@reddit
good luck finding an NHS dentist.
GreatBigDin@reddit
If OP can find an NHS dentist....
throwthrowthrow529@reddit
Let’s say you’d booked in with the specialist, and they said, it doesn’t need removing it can be fixed with a general dentist.
They’ve not called you and forced you to go to them, you’ve booked in with them for ease because they’re close, and asked for their opinion.
MisterHekks@reddit
As you clearly are not registered with a regular NHS dentist, where the initial consultation (including emergency appointments) would have cost around 30 quid, and the extraction around another 80 quid but, in this case, you chose to go private.
A typical private consultation is anywhere between £150-£300 for an emergency, so your 200 quid was on the cheaper side for the emergency consult. They then referred you to a dentist that can handle the relatively complex extraction of a wisdom tooth. I say relatively because it is simpler to extract non-wisdom teeth due to their position and uniformity. Wisdom teeth are often not uniform (due to their late eruption) and are complex to get to, being right at the back of the mouth and often angled awkwardly.
An extraction can cost anywhere from £200-£1,000, depending on complexity so you seem to be where one would expect the cost to be for private care.
What you could try is call 111 and tell them your dental issue. They may be able to get you an emergency appt at an NHS dental hospital which is probably what you were initially looking for / expecting.
eeyorethechaotic@reddit
It's not like a hair appointment. It's like a GP appointment. You get seen by the GP, and if you have a difficult case, you get referred to a specialist.
Yes, dentistry is very expensive. But it can be very difficult to diagnose a specialist case over the phone.
The bottom line is that if you leave it, you may find it becomes more expensive to extract. Or it gets infected, and you have to start again. And pay again. You need it to come out. So try to work out a way to pull the funds together if you can, sooner rather than later, before you're made to do the initial consultation again.
PreoccupiedParrot@reddit
If you have a dental school nearby you may be able to get free treatment through their training programme, especially as you're not registered with an NHS dentist.
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