From A Davis and J Utting, nursing staff.
SCRUTINY is investigating the cost of dental treatment in Jersey. Previously the Consumer Council, headed by Senator Alan Breckon, had made a comparison between Jersey dentistry and NHS dentistry.

As most people know (except the Consumer Council and Senator Breckon), the UK has a subsidised, underfunded and ailing dental system called the National Health Service — a system that forces dentists to see up to 60 patients per day (eight minutes a patient) just to meet practice overheads. The reason for headlines like ‘She pulled her own teeth out’ is because so many dentists have left this unworkable system for private practice.

As we know, all general dentistry in Jersey is private. There is the perception that private dentistry in Jersey is much more expensive than private dentistry in the UK. This is not true. What the Consumer Council and Senator Breckon should understand is that to conduct a proper comparison one would have to compare like for like, ie private dentistry in Jersey with private dentistry in the UK.

The previous investigation was like comparing the price of a new Mercedes with that of an old Volkswagen. We recently telephoned a few dental surgeries in the London area (as densely populated as Jersey) to get their prices and concluded that our prices are 30% lower. Dentistry is, and always will be, costly due to the huge investment needed to maintain equipment, clinic and highly skilled staff. We are also obliged by the authorities to keep an outstanding standard of care and hygiene and to keep up to date with development within our field.

At Dental Excellence we are proud of our reasonable fee structure and have chosen to display it on our website www.dentalexcellence.je. Patients receive an itemised estimate before any treatments begin.
We are looking forward to this investigation, during which we expect Scrutiny and Senator Breckon to find comparable rates between Jersey and the UK and set this myth to rest.
1 Quennevais Parade,
St Brelade.