Our Dental Team are committed to the National Health Service (NHS).The NHS provides the dental care and treatment necessary to secure, and maintain, the health of your mouth and teeth. Depending on your circumstances, you may have to pay for dental treatment. This page has information on what services you can expect from our team here at alan parker & associates dental practice.
Charges for NHS dental treatment were introduced in 1951 to help cover the cost of providing treatment. In a similar way charges for prescriptions and glasses were also introduced.
The NHS spends around £2.25 billion on dental treatment a year and patients only pay £550 million of this. So although it may not seem fair that you have to pay for dental treatment, the NHS still carries the biggest share of dental costs.
NHS Treatments
You can use a Health Service dentist with a set scale of charges, or can choose to pay for a private dentist depending on the type of care and treatment you wish to access.
Treatments available from your Health Service dentist include:
- An examination and assessment (check up)
- Radiographs (x-rays)
- Non-surgical treatment like scaling, polishing, periodontal (gum) treatments, fillings and oral hygiene instruction
- Surgical treatments like wisdom and other tooth removal
- Fillings
- Root canal fillings
- Other treatments such as bridges, crowns, and dentures
- Referral to a dental hospital for specialist treatment
Exemptions
At present under NHS regulations non-exempt patients are responsible for payment of 80% of the NHS Fees which are set and regulated by the government. However if you are exempt the NHS will pay 100% of your treatment costs for treatment available. Under the Health Service, exempt groups include those patients receiving Income Support, Jobseekers Allowance, Pension Credit Guarantee, Working Family Tax Credit, HC2 Exemption Certificate, all patients under the age of 18 and those under 19 in full time education and expectant or nursing mothers.
Appointments
At alan parker & associates we provide NHS treatment and operate an efficient appointment system, which means that once registered with us you don’t have to keep track of when you are next due your check-up! At present, we send notifications via post of your pre-arranged appointment, which you do not need to confirm.
If however you need to change the date or time we ask that you give us a ring as soon as you receive the card so we can offer your slot to someone else and re arrange a more suitable time for you. We also ask for a minimum of 24 hours notice when cancelling an appointment as this allows us to free a slot which can be used to treat a patient experiencing a dental emergency.
We guarantee to treat any registered patient within 24 hours. Out of surgery hours, you can leave a message on our phone system and we will return your call at our first opportunity.