This sticks in my craw
I apologise if you are a dentist and reading this.....well actually,no I don't!
Dentists and the dental profession are currently on the top of my rant list and have been for the last few years.
We were all bought up to take care of our teeth, told time and time again that they are precious and to lose them would be terrible, had fluoride put in our water systems and marched fearfully every six months to the local dentist for a check up and any appropriate treatment.
What was that all for then when years later we discover that the dental profession is so damn greedy that thousand upon thousand of us now don't have access to a dentist at all!
I for one have been unable, despite many attempts, to see a dentist for nearly 3 years. The only option now open to me is to wait until a dental problem becomes severe and attend the accident and emergency department of my local hospital. So much for preventative measures and all the crap trotted out by this profession regarding early treatment and diagnosis! On one such visit I was 'patched up' by a very nice guy who then told me, with a wry smile, that I needed to get a dentist and get the problem treated thoroughly, he added almost as an afterthought that I would be unable too and that he would expect to see me again!!
There has also recently been much advertising by the British Dental Association regarding awareness of oral cancers and the need to have a dental check up regularly because as ever with the big C, early detection is integral to a successful outcome .......fat chance!
Do these 'professionals' not have a duty of care similar to that of a doctor, were many of them not educated in our schools and universities? Where then is their sense of fair play. It would appear that many of them don't see dentistry as anything more than a means to make a buck. Those currently practicing chose to go into the field when the NHS system was intact and so presumably understood how poorly paid (not) etc. they were going to be, before they even commenced their education, so why the sudden about turn? Economic self gratification is my guess!
So I have no great political understanding, I'm not completely aware of all the arguments I'm sure dentists present, I'm just a ordinary 'Jane Doe' and maybe you lot have a point, though I'm damned if I can see it. What I have yet to see is a poor dentist living in the rough part of town unable to feed his or her family!
Project this situation ten or twenty years and maybe I can see where you are all coming from. We will have a nation of individuals with horrendous dental problems and you will, if you haven't already done so by operating solely in the private sector, make your fortunes repairing all the damage caused by the current situation. You can't lose!!!
I don't want to hear you blame the government, the NHS or anyone else for that matter. We all live within those constraints one way or another. This is no longer for me about whether or not I can afford private treatment (which incidentally I can't) it is about not wanting to line the pocket of a profession that it appears to be without morals or integrity!!
I hope you can all sleep in your [water] beds at night!
posted by gemmak @ 8:20 AM
12 Comments:
I totally agree. My last dentist was a friend also as our children went to the same school and he told me that it is just not true that dentists are not adequately paid through NHS work. Now that I have moved, my only option will be to go privately at some point, other that as an emergency - but I really don't trust unknown dentists in that situation - who is to stop them telling you you need all sorts of treament whether you do or not? When I was expecting my first child, because my treatment was completely free (to me) he did numerous fillings that my next dentist told me I had not needed at all. I do blame successive governments because I think this is just part of the surreptitious eradication of the health service. In these times, it is outrageous that thousands of people do not have access to an NHS dentist!
It's nice to hear it from the 'horses mouth' so to speak (no pun intened) and nice to hear I'm not alone in my frustration and annoyance with the dental profession!
The trust thing is an aspect I hadn't though of.
I'm generally quite reasonable at accepting the information a specialist gives me but on the basis that yours isn't the first 'unfortunate' story I have had relayed to me and the apparent lack of interest in anything other than the financial rewards dentists show, perhaps I will be more careful in future.........that is assuming I EVER get to see a dentist again!
I do agree with you on the subject of the erosion of the NHS, I just feel there are many, far more poorly remunerated people in our hospitals etc. that show greater integrity and genuine care despite that.
I have no scenery but I do have a nice selection of NHS dentists to choose from... oh, the joys of being a townie!
Oh and another thing - your local health authority have a statutory obligation to make dental care available - so get on to them! Come on you - I KNOW you can make a nuisance of yourself - get on with it... Power to the people.
Having said that I do find it rather bizarre that people will spend more on their garden, car, hobbies and/or beer and fags than they are willing to spend on their own health. It's not a dig - just an observation...
They may well have an obligation but attempting to get them to fulfill it is an entirely different thing! Do you really think I have changed to such a degree as to have failed in my duty to at least harass the life out of the service provider? :o)
I agree wholeheartedly on the point you make so eloquently about spending more on beer and fags, sadly in this green idyll even a private dentist is not to be found.
Mountains and Mohammed then - off to the town for you my girl! Do you have electricity and running water in the countryside? What about buses and phone boxes? Oh and taxis and pizza/Chinese/Indian deliveries? And television... Blimey, it's another world!
We do electricity but no gas, running water but no mains sewage :o/.....taxis, buses and phone boxes very rarely. Chinese/Indian and pizza delivery never! A different world indeed.
And 'no' to your mail, at least you read it and comment and you know me....I like the 'badinage' :o)
I will attempt to set some things straight because I believe the government has miseld the public with lies about "greedy dentists" for decades now. The only reason dentists are abandoning the NHS is that the fees they are paid are downright ridiculous for the highly skilled job they are supposed to do.
Let me give you an example of exactly how much the government values your health:
A filling on a child is less than a donner kebab.
An extraction is less than a music CD.
A root canal treatment on a front tooth, on which outcome the future of your tooth depends, is less than a playstation game.
So dentists were forced to see a huge number of patients each day (sometimes 30-40, that's the largest in the western world) and use only the cheaper materials. Ask any dentist in the US or the better parts of Europe and they will tell you about the appalingly low quality of NHS dentistry.
Many of us decided that they're not going to play the government's game anymore and stopped compromising our patient's health just because the government is used to buying dentistry on the cheap. Who can blame those who took that step?
As a last point, I'm a dentist and proud to be member of the profession with the highest suicide rate (so life isn't exactly rosy for us, as people tend to think), and I currently work in the NHS, but I will leave on the first chance I get. A few weeks ago the government announced that the new computer network for the NHS will cost 20-30 billion pounds. That's enough to pay for 30 years of dentistry at the current level, or 10 years of dentistry at a high quality level. But they're going to spend it on computers. Politicians have got their priorities seriously wrong.
I will attempt to set some things straight because I believe the government has miseld the public with lies about "greedy dentists" for decades now. The only reason dentists are abandoning the NHS is that the fees they are paid are downright ridiculous for the highly skilled job they are supposed to do.
Let me give you an example of exactly how much the government values your health:
A filling on a child is less than a donner kebab.
An extraction is less than a music CD.
A root canal treatment on a front tooth, on which outcome the future of your tooth depends, is less than a playstation game.
So dentists were forced to see a huge number of patients each day (sometimes 30-40, that's the largest in the western world) and use only the cheaper materials. Ask any dentist in the US or the better parts of Europe and they will tell you about the appalingly low quality of NHS dentistry.
Many of us decided that they're not going to play the government's game anymore and stopped compromising our patient's health just because the government is used to buying dentistry on the cheap. Who can blame those who took that step?
As a last point, I'm a dentist and proud to be member of the profession with the highest suicide rate (so life isn't exactly rosy for us, as people tend to think), and I currently work in the NHS, but I will leave on the first chance I get. A few weeks ago the government announced that the new computer network for the NHS will cost 20-30 billion pounds. That's enough to pay for 30 years of dentistry at the current level, or 10 years of dentistry at a high quality level. But they're going to spend it on computers. Politicians have got their priorities seriously wrong.
I will attempt to set some things straight because I believe the government has miseld the public with lies about "greedy dentists" for decades now. The only reason dentists are abandoning the NHS is that the fees they are paid are downright ridiculous for the highly skilled job they are supposed to do.
Let me give you an example of exactly how much the government values your health:
A filling on a child is less than a donner kebab.
An extraction is less than a music CD.
A root canal treatment on a front tooth, on which outcome the future of your tooth depends, is less than a playstation game.
So dentists were forced to see a huge number of patients each day (sometimes 30-40, that's the largest in the western world) and use only the cheaper materials. Ask any dentist in the US or the better parts of Europe and they will tell you about the appalingly low quality of NHS dentistry.
Many of us decided that they're not going to play the government's game anymore and stopped compromising our patient's health just because the government is used to buying dentistry on the cheap. Who can blame those who took that step?
As a last point, I'm a dentist and proud to be member of the profession with the highest suicide rate (so life isn't exactly rosy for us, as people tend to think), and I currently work in the NHS, but I will leave on the first chance I get. A few weeks ago the government announced that the new computer network for the NHS will cost 20-30 billion pounds. That's enough to pay for 30 years of dentistry at the current level, or 10 years of dentistry at a high quality level. But they're going to spend it on computers. Politicians have got their priorities seriously wrong.
Oops, sorry for the triple post! I guess it's back to the computer class for me!
Anonymous: Firstly thank you for taking the time to comment, it's good to get the opinion of the 'other side'.
Ok, now onto the points you raised.
I can accept without too much difficulty that the government has attempted to mislead us, the general public' with regard to the dental profession's greed, it would not be the first time and I am sure it will not be the last but were many of you not trained as I stated in my original post, at a time when most of the current situation was already in place and was the training not at the expense of this country? I know there are many dentists in the UK from overseas but presumably though not trained here there was something in our system that attracted them to practice here?
I doubt there are many employees of our NHS system who are happy with their lot, I myself worked within the system for a short time and found the entire experience very negative but the one big difference between dentists and the other employees from where I am sitting, is that the others carry on their duty of care regardless. Yes many doctors practice privately along with carrying out NHS work and yes I can jump a queue for surgery with cash but ultimately if I cannot afford that surgery, I will get it in time via the NHS. That is very much not so where my teeth are concerned!!
I appreciate that your profession is highly skilled and should be appropriately remunerated but it is a fact of life that most of us are not in reality salaried as we feel our work deserves. Dentists are not alone in that. We mere mortals just don't have the power to hold the government, or those we serve in our occupation to ransom!
Believe me I would like to have more respect for the dental profession but the bottom line for me is that I had a set of teeth that had been well looked after all my life and are now not as they should be. I am completely unable to get a dentist via the NHS and in fact where I live have been unable thus far to get one even privately......though how I would pay him or her if I could remains a mystery.
I do not apologise for my belief that dentists where in my mind akin to doctors, nurses, medical professionals of other specialities, the police, paramedics and the fire brigade. These are ALL highly skilled individuals who choose to go into a profession of caring. They differ from dentists in so much as despite their sometimes appalling conditions of service and salary they continue to care for those that require their skill. Their frustrations with the system within which they are employed do not affect the service user to anything like the magnitude that the dental professions behaviour has!
I cannot dispute the suicide rate, I have no evidential statistics to support or deny your claim but I do know various professions claim to hold the 'highest rate' accolade. I'm not sure what causes the pressure in dentistry, I am assuming workload. Sorry, but have any of you tried struggling with the day to day stressors and a heavy workload with your teeth causing you pain for years??
Bottom line: I can't see a dentist because dentistry is unavailable to me, both actually and financially and I don't understand how a caring profession can justify hurting the very people they claim to care for in pursuit of economic gain. One thing is for sure, those in government who your battle is with are not suffering, it is us, your patients that are doing that.
I am not going to argue the point that you as a profession are not 'well off' for that is relative. I only know that I don't see too many dentists living in the poor part of town or with holes in their shoes.
The situation continues to anger me. Strangely I am scared of dental treatment and it took me many years to become comfortable (ish) with it, now on top of rotting teeth I have to overcome that fear again should I be fortunate enough to ever receive the attentions of a dentist again.
P.S.
Anonymous: Er....before you leave the NHS you wouldn't have room on your books for just one more would you? ;o)
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