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]

"Feed me, Seymour!"

:D

[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!!

[andrewducker]

That sounds like a system designed to stop people moving around.

[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.

[star-tourmaline.livejournal.com]

LIKE

[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.

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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]

£17 for a scale and polish on the NHS.

[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".

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

Except that it's not: your own provincial plan will cover health care anywhere in the country... I can use my OHIP card in Alberta without having to apply for coverage in Alberta for a minimum of three months. Now, OHIP won't cover any treatment I receive in Alberta that they don't cover in Ontario and will only cover what they'd have paid an Ontario doctor for it, which may be an issue, but this isn't even remotely close to medical serfdom.

-- Steve's dental coverage is, alas, solely provided by a supplementary insurance plan from work and only covers 80% of billings... though he could pay extra to have that coverage raised.

[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.

[andrewducker]

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

[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.