Comparing Dental Plans? Always Compare Like For Like Products

How to choose the dental plan that’s right for you

With so many dentists favouring private dental treatment for their patients over the National Health Service, it is important to choose a dental plan that will work not only for you as an individual, but for your family too. It is the Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) which have been entrusted with Government funding for public dental care. PCTs agree contracts with NHS dentists to provide the services local people need, and they also influence where new dental practices are established.

Since dentists are no longer obliged to register NHS patients, more UK citizens than ever before have found it difficult to register as new NHS dental patients with their local dental surgery. However, changes to PCT funding allocation has encouraged many dentists to retain their existing patients and in some areas the PCTs have been hard at work enlisting new surgeries to accept NHS dental patients. The result has been that dentists have thankfully continued providing ongoing treatment and care, although the situation for both dentists and patients is still far from perfect. To find a dental practice which still takes on NHS patients has continued to prove difficult for many.

Even if you do get onto an NHS dentist’s books this does not necessarily mean that you will pay less and you will certainly be on a long waiting list for treatment. When in 2013 PCTs are phased out and GP consortia take over their work, it will be interesting to see if the plan to centralise the commission of dental services does indeed increase accessibility and choice for dental patients.

How does that affect you?

Whether you need simple dental care or emergency dentistry, your chances of finding a local dentist who continues to provide a National Health dental service are becoming increasingly slim.

According to whatprice.co.uk the average private dental charges are: £43 for a routine examination (NHS = £17), £31 for an X-Ray as a private patient, £381 for a root canal procedure and £851 for a bridge, while with NHS you are looking at £198 for procedures such as crowns and dentures.

Here is the basic breakdown as supplied by the NHS: an examination, diagnosis, and preventive advice will cost £17.00; an examination, diagnosis, preventative advice and one or more fillings will cost £47.00; and an examination, diagnosis, preventative advice, one or more fillings and one or more crowns will cost £204.00.

If you have an NHS dentist and are referred to another dentist for specialist treatment - such as treatment under sedation, orthodontics or even home visits - then this counts as a new course of treatment. That means you will need to pay two sets of charges: one to your dentist and one to the specialist. This rule does not apply if you are entitled to free NHS dental treatment.

Comparing insurance plans

When comparing dental insurance plans, you will find that some plans offer NHS only cover, others only private care and some - like Dencover - offer a combined NHS and private dental plan.

The reason private dental plans have become so popular in the UK is simple. Many British citizens are now buying private dental insurance; electing to receive private health care over that provided by the NHS in return for quicker treatments.

Dencover Dental Insurance ensures that at least a portion of your dental fees are paid back to you. Not only NHS dental costs but private dental costs are also covered, helping our members manage their dental bills more easily.

Dencover Dental Insurance covers 100% of maintenance costs and 50% of the cost of your private and NHS treatments, up to the amounts shown in the dental insurance comparison table.