Dentistry Poll-ish

[andrewducker]

[Poll #1778718]

Clearly there is a missing "i" in the second option.

Comments

[zz]

it's been so long since i went to the dentist i don't know how it works any more.

[andrewducker]

If I remember correctly, Steve Martin sings a lot. And then you get eaten by a giant alien flower.

[lpetrazickis.livejournal.com]

Loathsome Premier of Ontario Mike Harris (1995-2002) removed dental and optometrist services from what's covered by OHIP. The coverage is yet to be restored.

Incidentally, Toronto city council appears poised to cut subsidized dental care for the poor right now.

[lpetrazickis.livejournal.com]

For the curious, Canadian healthcare works as follows:

1. Ottawa gives the provinces money for healthcare.
2. Each province has its own program.
3. You have to reside in a province for six months before you are covered there.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

Option 2 is strictly correct but in practice my teeth have cost me less than £15 over the past 2 years - yay for free check ups :)

Before you decide you hate me, I'll point out that I went to an orthodonist for 9 years as a child and have had multiple teeth removed and every brace under the sun - I earned (pain) free visits to the dentists the hard (painful) way!!

[lizzie-and-ari.livejournal.com]

f) I haven't seen a dentist in over ten years. But I, Lizzie, answered for Ari and therefore b). Very heavily paid for by benevolent state though.

[ckd]

Is partially paid for by private insurance, which is itself partially paid for by my employer (and in some sense partially paid for by the government, since both my employer and I get a tax deduction).

[steer.livejournal.com]

I never have any particular need for dentistry so I long since stopped paying for checkups -- haven't seen one in about 5 years. If it was free I'd get check ups. It's bloody ridiculous how subsequent governments have progressively been able to leverage dentistry out of the NHS so it's now effectively all paid for by the customer apart from a tiny fraction.

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

NHS check ups are free in Scotland, not sure about elsewhere in UK

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I'm not actually sure. I have annual checkups and have never needed anything more in my life. I'm pretty sure my dentist here is private, but the checkups are pretty cheap, so am I paying for them out of my taxes on top of that?

[andrewducker]

There's NHS subsidies.

But through a stupid system. Anyone can try and get an NHS space, and thus get subsidised dentistry, so I get it, but someone on very low income may not have a nearby dentist who takes NHS patients, so they don't get it.

Which is a ridiculous way of running it.

[pete stevens (from livejournal.com)]

... is also not paid for by my private medical insurance for any treatment I've had done which makes me wonder why I give BUPA money in the first place.

[tanyad.livejournal.com]

I'm between option 3 and 4. I do have dental insurance, but have a co-pay even for maintenance type things ie cleanings and ex-rays. At old$job, my dental coverage was better but there still high out of pocket costs. The appointment you have, would be about $600 USD out of pocket for me and that's before a crown or other follow up work.

I hate going but my dentist has saved me so much hassle over the years and my teeth.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

I don't go very often, only thing I ever need is the hygeineist and that's never an NHS-covered item (so far as I can tell - it's £55 ish anyway...). I paid out of my own pocket for one major crown (broken molar). I can't fault the guy that my gum receded ever so slightly over the next few years, so you can tell it's there but other than that it's been excellent.

[andrewducker]

£17 for a scale and polish on the NHS.

[gwendally.livejournal.com]

We pay $600/year to dental insurance. This $600 is part of our compensation package in exchange for our labor, but because we have high skills and a snazzy compensation package, we get to pay for it in pre-tax dollars. Only $17 is explicitly withheld each pay period so hardly anyone even knows that we pay $600/year to get free cleanings and partial coverage on dental work; some covered at 80% and some covered at 50%.

But it's not a governmental thing or a socialist thing, unless you count the way tax breaks allow upper-income people to get part of their compensation package tax-free. Certainly a sweet deal for the salaryman. Sucks to be a laborer, though.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I'm sort of 2, but there's a catch, which is that although in theory I get NHS services, and I do pay NHS rates for check-ups, the NHS doesn't provide (ever) the regular treatment that I need, and whenever I have had something out-of-the-ordinary, I've been told 'this is what you can have on the NHS, or this is the *much better* treatment that's only available privately.'

[andrewducker]

For capping of teeth, the NHS options are only really acceptable for back teeth, because they look pretty horrible.

[drplokta]

There's no option for "I could get NHS dentistry, but a private dentist in the City is a very old family friend of my wife, and in any case I prefer the options available with private dentistry".

[andrewducker]

That's a good point. And as I mentioned above to bohemiancoast there are definitely some private options that are superior.

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

There's an ongoing ... difference of opinion between my local dentist, another dentist who used to work in the practice but has since set up a new practice a little way away, and the PCT (who in theory commission dentistry hereabouts). There has, as a result, been a lot of change.

I have only a scanty idea about who's actually at fault and what the issues are - the information I've had is either wilfully obtuse or obviously partisan, or both. I'm fairly sure that there were times when there was no NHS dentistry available nearby, and also times when all the nearby practices were NHS. But now I'm not sure - it's not at all clear to me whether (a) my dentist is an NHS dentist (and what that actually means), and (b) whether my personal treatment is on the NHS or not. I mean, I pay for my checkups, but that doesn't narrow it down.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Missed Option. I get $1500 of private dentistry a year from my wife's employers medical insurance which pretty much covers 2 check ups and cleans a year.

Interestingly the one area of US medicine I have found significantly better has been dentistry, but I have n excellent dentist and I needed a LOT of remedial work.

[andrewhickey.livejournal.com]

I think I'm NHS-but-paying-something but I could be private-but-getting-cheap-healthcare. I go to a dentist which does have NHS patients, they say "do you pay?", I say "yes" and they always say a small (sub-£50) amount of money. I'm really not sure, but I think it's the former.

[pigwotflies.livejournal.com]

Would be option 2 if I had to pay for it, but being currently unemployed I'm covered by Rob's work scheme which is way more generous than the NHS.

[dreema.livejournal.com]

when i broke a tooth, there were no nhs spaces available in the area, so i had to go private, i've just not bothered my ass to look for alternatives since, and am happy with the service that i pay for.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

My dentistry is paid for by my dental insurance, which is mostly paid for by my employer, which is the State of Washington, by way of the UW, so I don't think I fit any of your poll options.

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

[x] would be paid for if I chose to go to an NHS dentist, but I don't, so it isn't.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I pay £2 a month or so to get some kind of dental benefits through work, except I have no idea how it works, nor do I have any idea how to find a dentist, how to tell if they're NHS or not, or if they even ask before doing things that cost extra money (since the last time I did go to a dentist, they didn't)

That said, the second to last time I went to a dentist was to get a filling. The last time was about three months later and they took out the tooth that the filling had fallen out of :-/

[innerbrat]

I missed a dentists appointment once and they refused to ever see me again as an NHS patient.

True story.

[andrewducker]

Let me guess - they were the only dentists nearby?

[neferet.livejournal.com]

You've missed the option private dentistry by choice.
I technically fall into option 2, but treated my previous nhs dentists with great distrust having been constantly pressured to have fillings when I had no pain (that wasn't through injury). I repeatedly refused the work, which turned out to be justified;I got some x-rays when I turned to a private dentist for an emergency check up (kicked in the face, loose teeth); not a cavity in sight. Having the choice of 30-40% cheaper treatment in a practice that was always running late and always seemed to be angling to get me to pay for non-essential work, or paying the extra for being seen on time, treated like an intelligent human being, free sample handouts and staff that aren't already thinking about the next patient.....its one of the few luxuries I insist on.

[andrewducker]

That sounds awful. I am _very_ glad that my current dentist is very professional.

[ias.livejournal.com]

I have bad teeth (due teethrotting in my brace as a teenager) so need 2 monhly check-ups. Luckily I;ve always been able to find a NHS dentist. My ld ne on Bath was lovely, my current one is Polish and disairs of my teeth but neither have ever presured me into work I don't need.

I'm currently getting everything free and will for the next 15 months because I've got a maternity exemption certificate and I plan to make the best use of it that I can.

[soon_lee]

New Zealand has free dental care until you're 18. After that, you're basically on your own; I pay* an annual visit to the dentist for a checkup.

*Intentional.