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Are Dentists in Ireland more expensive than other Similar Euro Countries

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  • 05-01-2015 4:56pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 3,068 ✭✭✭


    Well are they

    80 notes here for a normal filling....

    Why so expensive?


«1

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 4,681 ✭✭✭bodice ripper


    the minimum amount of money that 80 notes could be is 400


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 24,465 ✭✭✭✭darkpagandeath


    Yes it the same for all healthcare, If you pay peanuts you get monkeys apparently. Or if you pay loads you get consultants that don't see anyone like we do now.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 19,889 ✭✭✭✭The Moldy Gowl


    the minimum amount of money that 80 notes could be is 400

    Maybe they are notes from his Mother?


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,735 ✭✭✭dar100


    Far more expense in Ireland, much cheaper in parts of Europe


  • Registered Users Posts: 18,504 ✭✭✭✭_Brian


    But are they any more expensive than other healthcare providers ??

    Our 6yo has some problems with her teeth, she had an extraction today, spent an hour with the dentist for €45.

    I've had reason to visit physio's who charge €40 for 30-40 minute sessions..

    Think of the cost of dental equipment, she had a dental nurse to pay, rent, rates, insurance, electricity, professional registration etc all before she had a bob for herself.. I'd be surprised if she earned much more than €15 for herself for the hour. Put onto that the cost of her education and I wouldn't consider it expensive.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,781 ✭✭✭KungPao


    I just use Polyfilla. And to avoid barber costs, I cut my hair with the Flymo. Saves me a pretty penny.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,735 ✭✭✭dar100


    You seem to have answered your own question!!! Although that's not the one you first asked!!

    It's much cheaper in parts of Europe, to answer your original question


  • Registered Users Posts: 40,928 ✭✭✭✭Annasopra


    Of course they are - sure loads and loads of people goto dentists in the North of Ireland and Budapest because they are much cheaper

    It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.

    Terry Pratchet



  • Registered Users Posts: 40,928 ✭✭✭✭Annasopra


    They even call it Dental tourismh

    ttp://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/irish-go-dental-abroad-holidays-part-of-the-bargain-in-budapest-1.1995059

    It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.

    Terry Pratchet



  • Registered Users Posts: 3,187 ✭✭✭Andrewf20


    I know its not Europe, but I got a dental inspection, clean and xray in the USA last year. Cost? $300. Thankfully insurance paid for it but a rip off if I had to foot the bill. A clean recently in Dublin cost me 40euro and the subsequent filling was 90eu. Considering the labour / skills involved, I dont actually think its bad value.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,180 ✭✭✭hfallada


    We have very few new dentist coming out of college here. Most go abroad for better opportunities. So there is very little competition. Also my dentist has a receptionist and dental nurse. Their wages must be around €25-30 per hour. Plus he has huge rents overhead. But he is worth it.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    My dentist is in the North, gave him the guts of £10k in the last four years (an accident with a toilet bowl in Newcastle), and there's no way I could have got it done cheaper anywhere else factoring in flights, accommodation, time off work etc,


  • Posts: 6,025 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    My dentist is in the North, gave him the guts of £10k in the last four years (an accident with a toilet bowl in Newcastle), and there's no way I could have got it done cheaper anywhere else factoring in flights, accommodation, time off work etc,

    Didn't I warn you about drinking out of the toilet? ( joke can't do wink on phone)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    Jake1 wrote: »
    Didn't I warn you about drinking out of the toilet? ( joke can't do wink on phone)
    Ha, I wish, landed in Newcastle sober as a judge (scouts honour), went for a shower, slipped in it, fell full whack of the toilet bowl. The two front teeth that broke clean were the cheapest!

    Still lasted the weekend though, drinking peroni and sweet and sour sauce from straws.

    /Bear Grylys


  • Posts: 6,025 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Ha, I wish, landed in Newcastle sober as a judge (scouts honour), went for a shower, slipped in it, fell full whack of the toilet bowl. The two front teeth that broke clean were the cheapest!

    Still lasted the weekend though, drinking peroni and sweet and sour sauce from straws.

    /Bear Grylys

    Crap , I feel bad now. That sounds awful


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭SpaceTime


    Basically what it comes down to is Ireland (and Britain too) have to compete with very, very overpaid medical posts in the USA and Australia (public spending bubble in Oz).

    Other EU countries generally don't have the same degree of movement to and from those countries due to lingusitic barriers and also lack of familiarity.

    If medical wages in Ireland are too low, we basically lose all our doctors.

    What's happening at the moment is that the career paths are lousy and the jobs are too difficult due to lack of resources and short staffing so Irish medics are going abroad in large numbers to countries with extremely expensive private systems (USA) or the Aussie bubble where public services are being funded from mineral boom revenues.

    The NHS is bleeding staff too. Not as dramatically but it's happening.

    Not my fave paper :

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10995371/Thousands-of-doctors-planning-to-leave-NHS-to-work-abroad.html


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    Jake1 wrote: »
    Crap , I feel bad now. That sounds awful
    Ah don't on the plus side I had to pay fcuk all tax that year!


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,936 ✭✭✭ballsymchugh


    Of course they are - sure loads and loads of people goto dentists in the North of Ireland and Budapest because they are much cheaper

    most things in ireland are more expensive than in eastern europe. the cost of doing business here is the problem.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,068 ✭✭✭Nesta99


    Specialun wrote: »

    Why so expensive?

    One major overhead is insurance cover for any medical practioner in private practice. The joys of living in a litigious society or at least insurance companies using this as an excuse to load premiums. My aunt retired as a consultant obstertician as to cover her insurance would have meant really crazy fees (and she hadnt any case taken against her). Ok its a particularly 'high risk' discipline when things go wrong but this would influence premiums in other medical areas including dentistry.

    High levels of water usage in dentistry for example is a big overhead + equipment (especially xray) are major costs certainly in relation to say a GP/physio practice. So bit of a vicious cycle occurs in that dentistry practice running costs in an expensive country means pricey fees meaning suppliers of equipment feel they can load their prices and so on and the patient carrys a good proportion of the burden....the dentist is hardly going to be happy with a net income of 30k or there abouts to keep their fees down...


  • Registered Users Posts: 20,299 ✭✭✭✭MadsL


    Andrewf20 wrote: »
    I know its not Europe, but I got a dental inspection, clean and xray in the USA last year. Cost? $300. Thankfully insurance paid for it but a rip off if I had to foot the bill. A clean recently in Dublin cost me 40euro and the subsequent filling was 90eu. Considering the labour / skills involved, I dont actually think its bad value.

    40+90 = 130 euro = 170 USD in 2013. Not far off, and most people have some dental cover.

    Personally I'd pay the extra, my dentist here has got far superior equipment. A Drip anesthetic machine that only numbs the tooth she's working on, and a 3D X-ray machine that lets her judge exactly the length of screw for the implant I had done. She also gave me far better advice than any dentist is saw in Ireland, Irish or Polish :)


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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,122 ✭✭✭BeerWolf


    Definitely --- Spain's really cheap.


  • Registered Users Posts: 16,571 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    Cost me (by today's exchange rate) about 60 euro to have 4 wisdom teeth removed here, in two different visits*. Maybe the same again in prescription painkillers.

    *Never worked out if it was cheaper because I was sent to a dental university clinic instead of a regular clinic, because of how close the teeth were to the nerve. Maybe the roomful of dental students observing my contortions was in lieu of cash. If so, great!


  • Registered Users Posts: 16,154 ✭✭✭✭Grayson


    Nesta99 wrote: »
    One major overhead is insurance cover for any medical practioner in private practice. The joys of living in a litigious society or at least insurance companies using this as an excuse to load premiums. My aunt retired as a consultant obstertician as to cover her insurance would have meant really crazy fees (and she hadnt any case taken against her). Ok its a particularly 'high risk' discipline when things go wrong but this would influence premiums in other medical areas including dentistry.

    High levels of water usage in dentistry for example is a big overhead + equipment (especially xray) are major costs certainly in relation to say a GP/physio practice. So bit of a vicious cycle occurs in that dentistry practice running costs in an expensive country means pricey fees meaning suppliers of equipment feel they can load their prices and so on and the patient carrys a good proportion of the burden....the dentist is hardly going to be happy with a net income of 30k or there abouts to keep their fees down...

    It's still cheaper in the north. They'd have comparable insurance costs.

    There's a dentistry forum or something like it on boards. I stumbled across it looking for reviews of foreign dentists. The mod automatically slaps down anyone who has anything good to say about foreign dentists. According the that forum everywhere else in the world has substandard dental care and we should be grateful we don't pay twice as much as we do here.

    There was one thread where someone replied and said that the supplies they use in Eastern Europe are substandard. One poster found out what they use and showed that it's the exact same stuff as here. Just here there's something like an 800% markup here.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,741 ✭✭✭Piliger


    Specialun wrote: »
    Well are they

    80 notes here for a normal filling....

    Why so expensive?

    One major reason is simply because they can .... They act like a closed shop and coordinate their fees.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,986 ✭✭✭conorhal


    Because we like closed shops and cosy professional cartels in this country.

    Another reason prices are high is down to the fact that it was largely the professional classes (lawyers, bankers, doctors and dentists) that invested heavily in property and 'partied' the hardest during the boom years. This is why I reccomeded both my folks to visit the dentist while abroad on holidays after both were reccomended expensive and largely unnecessary treatments for dental problems. That second opinion was invaluable in saving them thousands.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,741 ✭✭✭Piliger


    About five years ago I had long overdue work done on my teeth. I had had a massive amount of work done when I was a kid, in the Dental Hospital here in Dublin. I had been visiting Poland a lot for business and personal reasons so I asked them to recommend a dentist in the local biggest city - which was a city called Kielce in central Poland.
    When I went to him I discovered he was absolutely bloody fantastic. His clinic was super modern with the latest equipment and he himself was a hoot.
    I had 80% of my teeth beautifully crowned, including ceramics and four veneers, over a period of several months. I flew there on about six visits overall. The total cost including hotels and flights was €3,800. I priced the work here in Dublin and it would have been €15,000+ !


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,794 ✭✭✭Aongus Von Bismarck


    Dentists tend to charge well in Ireland for their services and expertise. The standards are high though. You wouldn't think it though with the state of some of the mouths you see out in public in Ireland.
    I was home for Christmas and the state of some people. Stained teeth jutting out at all sorts of angles. Not a care in the world. A routine examination, clean and polish every 6 months is the very least you should be doing.


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,262 ✭✭✭✭jester77


    I paid €120 here for a filling with no anasthetic. My health insurance, which costs around €500 a month, doesn't cover it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,222 ✭✭✭keithclancy




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  • Registered Users Posts: 3,043 ✭✭✭Wabbit Ears


    Dentists tend to charge well in Ireland for their services and expertise. The standards are high though.


    This is a massive irish lie we tell ourselves that is being extended to dentists. Ive had dental work done in Poland, Hungary and up north as well as several places in Ireland and the standards of the practices themselves, knowledge of the profession, equipment and materials used made most Irish dentists look like they are still in the dark ages.

    One example was a dentist in Poland recommended that I have a dark ugly filling replaced and commented that I must have had it years. He was truly shocked that It had only been done the year before.


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