Health: How perfect teeth cost pounds 1,000 to fix
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Your support makes all the difference.A journalist posing as a patient who visited 25 dentists round the country found some who said he had nothing wrong with his teeth, while others suggested more than pounds 1,000-worth of treatment. Jeremy Laurance asks if such variations are inevitable.
It is a well-tried trick and the results are always startling. Send a journalist "undercover" to dentists across the country to see what treatment they recommend and how much it will cost.
In the latest survey of this kind, published today in Reader's Digest, the "patient" found one dentist who said he needed nothing more than a scale and polish, while another suggested three fillings, extraction of a wisdom tooth and the replacement of four crowns costing more than pounds 1,000.
Both these were private dentists in Swansea, West Glamorgan. Another private dentist, in London, recommended one filling and one crown at a cost of pounds 430.
Sticking with the NHS did not guarantee cheaper treatment. One NHS dentist in Birmingham suggested five fillings and replacing a crown at a cost of pounds 413.
Before starting on his travels, the journalist, Tony Dawe, had a check- up from his own dentist and two professors of dental health. All three said he needed no treatment other than a scale and polish.
Dentists have an incentive to treat because the more they do the more they are paid. Mr Dawe concludes: "Dentistry is a stunningly inexact science. Even though I had expected that dentists would have different, yet valid, opinions, I was not prepared for the astounding variations in diagnoses."
The British Dental Association said a survey of any profession would reveal differences of opinion.
A spokeswoman said: "Sending a patient on a tour of dentists is an artificial test because what is appropriate treatment for a regular attender might not be for someone coming for the first time."
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