Private treatment is well worth considering for a number of reasons

Hopefully our blogs have helped patients understand how important good oral health care is. Preventing significant dental problems is far better than needing to undergo treatment, although this may be necessary from time to time.

A big part of this preventative care is seeing a dentist every six months or so for a thorough check up. Many patients in the Canterbury area will, in the past, have seen an NHS dentist, but as anyone who reads the news will know, getting an appointment for this now can be quite difficult.

There are a number of factors that may have contributed to this, and Covid was certainly one of them. Some suggest that a lack of dentists due to post Brexit restrictions has been another factor too. Whatever the reasons though, the reality is that too many people haven’t seen a dentist for a year or more and may be putting their teeth and gums at risk because of this.

We are often creatures of habit and may think that we will wait for better availability but this may not happen for a long time or possibly not even at all; nobody really knows. In the meantime, you may wish to consider using a private practice such as Bradley and Partners Dental & Implant Clinic to prevent oral health from deteriorating.

Why private dentistry?

As mentioned above, one significant thing that private dental care has over NHS dentistry currently is availability of appointments. If you use a private dentist, you can almost guarantee that you will be seen within a reasonable timescale, allowing you to make a convenient appointment and to receive any treatment that is needed to prevent a problem from becoming worse.

Are there other advantages though?  Well, private dentistry certainly attracts highly qualified and trained staff so you can be confident to receive good quality care and attention. All treatments that you can receive with an NHS dentist are also available to private dental patients too.

In addition to the more routine procedures, most private dentists also offer a wide range of cosmetic treatments that enable you to not only have healthy teeth, but ones that look great too.

Which cosmetic treatments are available?

Before we look at ‘purely’ cosmetic treatments such as teeth whitening, it is worth saying that as well as cosmetic benefits, some of these also offer practical benefits. Perhaps the most significant of these is tooth  implant placement. With NHS dentistry, the replacement of a lost tooth will typically mean either dentures or a bridge. Both of these procedures have improved to the point where aesthetically they look reasonably natural but both lack one of the main benefits of dental implants; their stability and strength.

Dentures and bridges may replace the crown part of the tooth but they don’t replace the roots and therefore depend on other ways of retaining their strength. Implants, on the other hand, replace the root part of the tooth as well and it is this that allows patients with dental implants the benefit of strong teeth that will not move around in the mouth. Implants are only available privately and provide an excellent method of replacing a missing tooth or teeth.

Even a routine procedure such as a filling can be improved with private care. NHS fillings will usually be of the amalgam variety; a strong material but one that is also very visible. Private dentistry also offers the option of tooth coloured fillings, not only restoring your teeth but in a more aesthetic way.

Other popular cosmetic treatments include ‘invisible’ orthodontics, porcelain veneers and, of course, the very popular teeth whitening procedure. Once patients have become aware that they have access to treatments such as these with private care, they rarely look back and take advantage of available procedures to have a great looking smile.

What about the cost?

Understandably, and especially in tricky financial times like these, our Canterbury patients will be concerned about the costs involved. There is no getting away from the fact that private dentistry is more expensive than NHS care as it isn’t heavily subsidised. The other side of this coin is that the range of treatments is less restrictive. With regards to paying for private care, we offer a range of payment plans that allow our patients to spread the cost of treatment and also offer the well known Denplan payment scheme which offers a wide range of benefits for our patients.

If you have been unable to get an NHS dentistry appointment and would like to ensure that your mouth remains healthy, we recommend contacting us to discuss alternatives. We are also happy to explain our payment plans in more detail and are sure that you will feel that it offers good value for money, along with faster access to both essential and cosmetic dental care. If you would like to discuss this with us, please call Bradley and Partners Dental & Implant Clinic today on 01227 463529.