Open up
‘Good girl’ said the dentist ‘I can see you’ve been looking after your teeth – even if you haven’t seen me for two whole years.’
‘Yes’ I think, silently stewing as she scrapes away at my teeth like a chisel-wielding maniac, ‘they have invented toothbrushes now, you know.’
How can these people be so patronising? Do they actually think that making me feel like a ten year old will get me to make regular visits? Or is it the power of having someone trapped in the chair beneath them, the threateningly bright lights and the sucky thing?
Yes, I’ve been to the dentist this morning.* It wasn’t unpleasant, just annoying. From the quite frankly bizarre selection of magazines (Attitude, The World of Interiors and Lancashire Life**) when you arrive to the ‘And you’ll be making your appointment for six months time?’ breeziness of the receptionist when you leave, the whole experience just irritates.
I think that it is, like with my old friend the optician, the expectation that you should troop off to see them and their ilk at regular intervals (even if you have absolutely no need to) and that they don’t hesitate in reminding you of this fact. Oh, it’s for your health and all that, but who has regular visits to the doctor just for the hell of it?
So I want to get to the bottom of this once and for all. Does anyone actually go to the dentist and/or hygienist every six months? Is this number plucked from the air in the hope that you might go at least once a year? It is just opportunistic scaremongering isn’t it? Or am I being cynical as usual.
* at this point I’d like to reassure you that I have done more interesting things than go to the dentist during my recent blogging absence. Really.
** no, I haven’t moved to Lancashire.
Tags: mindless minutiae
July 20th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
We used to go every six months as kids. Now it’s once a year. I’m due to go on Thursday. I like my dentist. He never does anything unnecessary and he doesn’t hurt.
July 20th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
My dentist told me that once a year was absolutely fine. He’s completely non-patronising, has never tried to sell me anything, and I haven’t had to have a thing done to my teeth for over fifteen years. I love him.
July 20th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
I go every seven years. Never need a thing doing!
July 20th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Er yes I do… however largely because we are with an NHS practice and you need to keep going to keep that place and if you lose it getting another NHS dentist here in Kent is a total nightmare. I still can’t understand how that part of “free health care at the point of delivery” got swept away.
I took my daughter to the orthodontist today and she has to go every two months! She’s not best pleased she has to wear a plastic band thing that basically wires her jaw together… oh how I could have kissed him :-0
July 20th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
I don’t go anything like as often as I should – however, I do have a friend in Canada who is a dentist, and last time I was there I paid her a visit. She was stunned by the good condition of my teeth despite the fact that I was a/ English (stereotypes abound) and b/ not a regular visitor of dentist’s clinics.
I’m not a fan of trips to either the dentist or the optician for the reasons you outline – apart from my friend, they do seem to be a terribly condescending breed of Healthcare Professional. In fact, my present optician is a very smug, suave gentleman who is clearly trying to fast-track his way on to daytime television. Before him, though, I had a really incredibly charming and attractive female optician who, in some respects, I’m glad has gone. It sounds like it should be a wonderful thing, but when the lights were out and she was breathing down my ear, it felt entirely wrong. I couldn’t put my contact lenses in straight afterwards, and she asked me why I wasn’t used to putting them in my eyes after all this time as a wearer. So at least when I go to get my eyes tested now, I don’t feel as if I’m having some kind of weird affair.
July 21st, 2010 at 12:31 am
Last time I went I asked for my next six monthly appointment on the way out and the receptionist said they didn’t do that any more- something to do with waiting lists. I seem to remember it was a scandal at the time, the shortage of NHS dentists in certain parts of the UK. Or what passed for a scandal a couple of years ago. Something tells me this new government is going to make us look back fondly to when our major healthcare concern was whether we’d be able to have our molars regularly given the once-over..
July 21st, 2010 at 12:14 pm
After the last visit to the NHS dentist (the lovely Mrs Liao) she has decided I only need to see her once a year. But I do have the hygenist (the equally lovely Kirstie) every 3 months and also a private version of the two combined at approx 12-18 month intervals too.
But then I’m awkward, having genetically inherited problematic deep pockets around the teeth which have caused my jawbones to dissolve away to the point that I had to have them rebuilt (crikey, that was 7 years ago!) so need to protect the investment as it were. I had to give in earlier in the year and have one molar whipped out where even the reconstruction was not enough to keep it in, but I will do my darndest to hang on to the rest as long as I can.
July 21st, 2010 at 8:26 pm
Hmm, I’ve just realised that my own comments aren’t being published…
July 21st, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Aha! Well, what I was meaning to say was that it looks as though we are split here and maybe what it comes down to is whether your dentist is NHS or not. Mine isn’t and its making me a cheapskate…
In any case, it looks like the 6-month thing is variable by region, practice and past experience.
Tell your daughter, Furtheron, that’s its all worth it. I had braces too and its made all the difference. By rights, with all the teeth I’ve had ripped out and wired up over my formative years I should be like SimonB and making a beeline to the dentist more than I should. Perhaps I need a foxy dentist to encourage me Dave?!
July 21st, 2010 at 11:50 pm
Ohh, this is one that really gets my goat!!
In the ‘good old days’ (i.e. when all dentist were NHS and that was it), every now and then you would be offered a clean as part of your check up. It wouldn’t be ever time, just when the dentist thought you needed it. I can’t quite remember now, but these cleans were either free or a couple of quid.
I still go to NHS dentists, yet the last 3 places I’ve been, not one of them offers an NHS clean – I’m sure an NHS dentis should be offering an NHS clean. But worry not, they just so happen to have a hygienist who can do it for the bargain price of £45! Really! So is this really an NHS dentist??
Miraculously, they also seem to recommend having this done every 6 months now – as you point out. I’m sure this is in now way linked to the £45 price tag.
I honestly think you can do your teeth damage with such regular ‘power cleaning’, and they must be eroding the enamel. My dentist really does the hard sell, I let him book it, then i ring up and cancel it. I don’t have em cleaned any more than once every 2 years (and at 45 quid, thats all I can afford!)
P
July 22nd, 2010 at 9:07 am
@Cocktails – my daughter is being really good and already in a couple of days the latest gap they are attacking does look to be closing – I know she’ll be grateful at the end – my son had same issues too many teeth for the size of gob :-)
@Piley – you are being done sunshine – my dentist a checkup and clean is normally about £20
July 22nd, 2010 at 5:31 pm
I was going to say Piley – £45 for a clean at a Southend NHS dentist? It costs me that to see the dentist in central London!!!
Hmmm, and yes, when exactly did dentists start being too good to do the clean themselves as part of the checkup? You’re right I remember it happening just when you needed rather than it needing a specialist every 6 months. Its hard not to be cynical about these things.