Took dear son to dentist in December (he has problem teeth) dentist wants to refer him to Childrens for some treatment. Fine, I wait for the referral letter from them (still waiting).

In the mean time he has an appointment for next Monday at the same dentist. Phone rang yesterday, person he is seeing isn't available so she has rescheduled his appointment to 6th of March :rant:

Lets hope all his teeth dont fall out in the mean time!

WHY... WHY.. WHY do we have to wait so long???

The fact you haven't heard from the hospital isn't surprising it can often be over 3 months before you hear about a referral. Waiting times for appointments at dentists again aren't surprising if it's NHS. I'm not saying I agree with it, it just seems to be the norm. Be glad he even has a dentist, no dentists in my area are taking new patients, either private or NHS.

According to my dentist, the long waiting times are due to people not turning up for their appointments. Our dentist puts a note up each week to let people know how much lost time is spent on people just not turning up. My dentist is one of the popular ones at their practice and most of his lost hours add up to about 5 each week. If people would ring up and cancel then they would be able to fit emergencies in thus getting other patients seen in a much shorter period.

Originally posted by fox20thc
Took dear son to dentist in December....... 6th of March :rant:

Lets hope all his teeth dont fall out in the mean time!

WHY... WHY.. WHY do we have to wait so long???

That's a long time (especially for a child to have to wait).

I, however, can beat the waiting time....

I went (emergency) to Charles Clifford's last February, where I was given anit-biotics to combat an infection and told I would be sent a follow up app for the work that needed (in their words) urgent work (not been to a dentist for neary 25 years). Yet I have still not received my second appointment.

Originally posted by sccsux
That's a long time (especially for a child to have to wait).

I, however, can beat the waiting time....

I went (emergency) to Charles Clifford's last February, where I was given anit-biotics to combat an infection and told I would be sent a follow up app for the work that needed (in their words) urgent work (not been to a dentist for neary 25 years). Yet I have still not received my second appointment.

Haven't you rung them to let them know that they may have forgotten you?

Originally posted by DIBS
Haven't you rung them to let them know that they may have forgotten you?

I've thought about it, but that'd result in me having to go back? :D

Me and dentists just don't gell.

Originally posted by DIBS
According to my dentist, the long waiting times are due to people not turning up for their appointments. Our dentist puts a note up each week to let people know how much lost time is spent on people just not turning up. My dentist is one of the popular ones at their practice and most of his lost hours add up to about 5 each week. If people would ring up and cancel then they would be able to fit emergencies in thus getting other patients seen in a much shorter period.

I went to mine on Friday and they follow the same practise of putting up the total of missed appointments but also informing that a fee is payable for missed or late cancellation which I think is fair enough.
So on Friday the 13th, the number so far was 78!!
I dread to think what the final number would be at the end of the month.

Perhaps if they issued a fine for not turning up or just took you off the list (which would probably mean you would never find another as all the books appear closed) it may be an incentive to either call and rearrange or actually turn up.

Just a thought

Originally posted by LellyBee
I went to mine on Friday and they follow the same practise of putting up the total of missed appointments but also informing that a fee is payable for missed or late cancellation which I think is fair enough.
So on Friday the 13th, the number so far was 78!!
I dread to think what the final number would be at the end of the month.

My dentist does that as well, I don't know if it does any good at all but I think they should have to pay for wasting the dentists time.
If a patient doesn't turn up, then the next time they come to make an appointment they have to pay the fine first before they will give them another appointment.

Yeah mine has been busy drilling me for an hour and charging me £250 for a crown, which had to be done privately.