tee1

For the 1st time since being here, today I visited a Canadian dentist.
Compared to the NHS I found the hygienist very through and I was surprised how much knowledge she had overall about dentistry.

A couple of things which got me though,
1. The dentist didn't wear gloves during the exam and maybe I'm just being silly but I did not like that one bit.
2. The dentist office was all open plan and I felt like I was in a zoo as the office was in a mall with the dentist chair basically in the window with everyone passing and staring in. Very uncomfortable and quite a weird set up I thought.

Whats everyone else's experiences like with dentistry in Canada? My experience was that the standard seemed to be higher but for the above reasons I'll not be going back to this guy. It was the gloves issue that really made me feel very uncomfortable.

Does everyone else find there's a real big push here on getting you to have x rays for no apparent reason also? Myself and my boyfriend went to different dental offices both who gave the hard sell on needing full mouth x rays.
I declined as I'm positively glowing from an all the x rays and scans I've had this year due to an injury to my back. I can't say my NHS dentist has ever needed to x ray before replacing a filling but the dentist here was very sure it was needed and is reluctant to replace a filling without one.
My betterhalf was given a full mouth x ray and when he told me, my reaction was what in the hell for? He has perfect teeth with no fillings and no pain ??
Seems completely unnecessary to me. Rant over

haggis88

My dentist in the UK always used to X-Ray before fillings...i never questioned it...maybe because she knew i had private healthcare and they'd pony up the dough?

I've yet to visit a dentist here in Canada...which is terrible because i know i need at least 2 fillings and my new jobs benefits package hasn't kicked in yet!

JonboyE

The joys of private medicine. All the treatment you need. Sorry, all the treatment you will pay for. Many people have work based dental plans so the more business focused dentists will assure you that insured treatment is necessary treatment.

It is just a matter of finding a dentist you are comfortable with. After a couple of hiccups we have established a relationship with our dentist where they are dental service providers and we are patients, not they are business people and we are profit centres.

tee1

Yeah I'm only going right now whilst we have the benefits, sure is pricy

scrubbedexpat091

I don't go to the dentist very often since they charge a small fortune and my coverage from the government is limited, however when they know you can't pay for all the fluff and the government is providing payment, all of a sudden you don't seem to need all these things they said you did before, imagine that....lol

I went for a general check up last month, doctor wore gloves and a mask, washed his hands before putting the gloves on, washed afterwards as well.

beckiwoo

Never had an issue with my dentist, always wears gloves and I get an X-ray nearly every year. and I'm on NHS. Never bothered with private except for getting my braces done when I was younger ( my fathers company plan). - only had my first filling this year and I'm nearly 30.

I've heard how much dentistry is in Canada and it's a real eye opener. Do most companies offer a dental plan then? Or only if you are on mega $$$$?

Dashie

I've been to 3 different dentists here, and would fly back to my old one in the UK in a heartbeat.

First one wanted to crown every single tooth, $14,000 in work. I thought the quality of his work was decent, but felt like I was a piece of meat with a dental plan.

Second one spent 6 years slowly redoing all of the crap work of the first dentist, who had in fact just made it all look nice. Good solid work, too many annoying reminder calls, wouldn't stop until you called them back to confirm that you got their messages to remind you of your appointment.

Third one due to house move. I have issues with local anaesthetics in that there's only one that really seems to work. Said they had it, didn't, used a different one and had to peel me off the ceiling. Very ditsy. Not great work, sends you to other dentists for simple extractions.

Looking for a 4th.

All of them have taken as many X-rays as our dental plan allows. The second dentist would take them but then ignore anything minor anyway.

I had 2 extractions over the past year. It would be cheaper for me to fly my entire family back to the UK for 2 weeks and get private treatment for implants or bridges than to get anything done here. And that's based on the teaching price at the local dental school...

iaink

If you dont like your dentist here, ask around and find another more to your liking. Its not like there is a shortage of competition. Some are flash and want to treat everything, have flash designer offices and prices to match. Others are more meat and potatoes and happy to just make sure you have healthy teeth and dont push cosmetic treatments that you dont want.

I think its important to make it clear early on exactly what you are looking for in a dentist and to make sure you are on the same page. Ive been lucky to have outstanding care from mine (2 dentists in the office) over the years, and although they are is not exactly cheap, they at least charge close to the provincial limits that my benefits pay up to. They are far from the most expensive around.

Simon Legree

Go to Mexico on a "dental vacation". My orthodontist changes US$350 for a root canal. Crowns are $185 and up. Implants are $800 I believe. I've been going to the same folks down there for 13 years or so. Great work every time. The only thing is that he isn't there from May to October because he decamps to the dental school in Loma Linda, CA to teach.

SchnookoLoly

Husband and I have both had our first appointments here with our dentist this year. Our dentist is the same dentist I went to as a kid, but haven't been there in about 6 years since I moved to the UK. We did have a private dentist in the UK.

Xrays - dentist wanted to do xrays for the both of us as they like having their own. We both had email copies of our last xrays from the UK, but they were both 2 years old, so our dentist wanted new and updated ones. Fair enough. They said they won't do xrays again for about 2 years, which was also what our dentist in the UK did.

We both echo your thoughts that the hygenists are very thorough and know a lot about dentistry. My mouth was actually sore after my cleaning and my teeth felt way cleaner than they did after my cleanings in the UK. (Our private dentist in the UK was very good, but this was just so much better.)

My husband has always maintained that his teeth are too close together to properly floss... he was proven wrong when the hygenist flossed his whole mouth.

We also find that the amount of preventative medicine here is way better. I had my wisdom teeth out years ago; my husband's dentists in the UK have never said anything about his wisdom teeth. Our dentist here didn't like the look of his bottom wisdom teeth - one was about 1/3 grown in so just poking through the gum, and no sign of the other three. Husband has never had any dentist before comment on his wisdom teeth. So our dentist here referred him to an oral surgeon. He went this morning for that appointment and found that he only has bottom wisdom teeth, no top ones (he never knew that), and that the bottom ones are at risk for infection (one impacted, one partially grown in) so he's having them removed in about 6 weeks.

OP's dentist not using gloves is way too weird. That would put me off as well. Also not sure how I feel about open plan.

As others have said, though, there are lots of dentists, so like anything else it's a question of finding the one that works for you.

MarkG

It's no more expensive than the treatment I had in the UK, and the company health plan covers most of it. Needless to say, it would probably be cheaper if people actually had to pay out of their own pocket!

As for X-rays, my dentist in the UK always did one before replacing a filling, and he had the X-ray machine hooked up to his computer so he could take X-rays in the middle of more complex procedures like a root canal. Don't think they charged for them outside the basic cost of the dental procedures, since it was just a click of a mouse rather than having to process film. So it does feel like I've gone back a few years in time with the level of dental technology here compared to the UK.

But, yeah, they do use gloves. Not doing so is weird. Overall, the dentist here seems pretty good, they haven't pushed for any kind of treatment I didn't think I needed, and the full mouth X-rays are only every five years.

beckiwoo

I think I would do the same if I needed treatment rather then pay $1000 for treatment - come back home and get it done - cheaper for a start

Are the dentists in Canada into all this teeth whitening stuff. In the UK it's about £200 ( can't get it on NHS as it's cosmetic). How much is it there?

iaink

Ive always presumed that my $20 is paying for the purchase and maintenance of the equipment. There must be a fair chunk of change tied up there?

SchnookoLoly

Once you aren't resident in the UK you aren't entitled to free NHS anymore, so going back just to get something done is basically mooching off the health system. In Canada, most employers cover dental work... everything my husband and I have had done so far has been covered by our work benefits. Cleanings in the UK were a bit cheaper (at our private dentist we were paying £100 for a cleaning; we pay about $250 here, but it's way more thorough and a longer cleaning, 25 minutes as compared to 45 minutes).

I can't speak for all dentists, but my dentist is against whitening - he's also taken both me and my husband off of whitening toothpaste as it weakens the enamel on your teeth since it's more abrasive than regular toothpaste. My dentist said not to use any whitening solutions either - strips, gel, etc - as it has to get through the enamel to work so while your teeth might be whiter in the short term, they'll then get yellow faster over time because you've weakened the enamel over it.

beckiwoo

I'm guessing your talking about private here though?

It seems like the provincial health insurance plans don't really cover dental in the same sort of way UK citizens get NHS treatment funded.