We believe that fair pricing is an important part of our ethos. We want the fees that we charge you as a patient to be great value to you but to also reflect a fair price for our skills and experience – without compromising the quality of materials, our duty to the environment, or the respect we have for our staff and suppliers. Below we have set out what we will do to try to make this happen.
Making you aware of the fees:
We want you to be fully aware of the treatment we are proposing, the reason why we are proposing it and of the fees that you will pay before the treatment starts. We also want you to be aware of when your fees will be due, in most cases this will be upon arrival for each appointment.
To do this we will:
How can I save money on my dental treatment?
Fee Rises
We review our fees at least annually, looking at our current costs and the current market conditions we will decide whether to increase some or all of our fees. We will let you know the result of the fee review with an email and a copy of the new prices.
If we raise our fees and you have a treatment plan that is less than 60 days old, the prices on it will be valid for 60 days from the date of the rise. Treatment plans that are older than 60 days will be subject to the new fees, unless the treatment plan is extensive and requires appointments over a prolonged period of time.
But why do you have to raise your fees?
The two major factors we take into consideration when adjusting our fees are our costs and the market conditions. Our costs are all the things that we must pay for in order to run a practice, ranging from cleaning and insurance to energy. By far the biggest of these are the wages, the materials and the laboratory costs.
We want you to have confidence in our team and the best possible service and treatment. To do this we need the best people working for us. The dental job sector on the Island is extremely competitive, we think it's only right to pay our staff a fair wage, if we didn't someone else would and we would lose them. We invest heavily in training our staff, we believe that it is important to upskill all staff members to enable them to progress in their careers in the future.
The cost for materials and laboratories varies hugely. We could reduce our fees by using cheaper materials that don’t have biocompatible properties, or find a cheaper laboratory, but we have found that it this often a false economy. In the world of dental materials and laboratories it is almost universally true that you get what you pay for. If we used a cheaper filling material it will not look as nice or last as long – ultimately meaning that you will probably end up paying more.
Dental material costs also change based on the world market. Most of the items we use are manufactured in Europe, and any changes to the relationship between Britain and its trading partners causes costs to fluctuate.
We consider all these factors when deciding if we should raise our fees.
What exactly does Fair Pricing mean?
We think by following these principles we are giving you the best possible service at good value, and we are treating our staff and suppliers fairly, this is what we mean by fair pricing.
Why our prices say 'from...', and our treatment plans 'estimates'.
It's hard to be completely accurate on our fee guide, for example for a white filling on our guide it says "From". So why do we say 'from' and not just give a fee? A small filling in a premolar is easy to get to and doesn't use much material which will be cheaper. A big filling at the back of the mouth will take longer, it will be more difficult to get to and it will use more material, therefore the cost will be more.
Sometimes there are things that we would want to fix before we even get to a filling, a good example is gum disease. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that gum disease has a considerable effect on your overall health, and we would always want to sort that out first.
Even when we have seen you and provide you with a treatment plan, the figures are an estimate, we will try to explain in the plan why there might be variation, but the main reason we have to be unspecific is that we just can't be sure of what's going on until we have actually seen it. One example of this is where we may need to replace a failing crown. Even an X-ray won't show if there is decay under the crown, we won't know the extent of the problem until we have taken the old one off and it may need more treatment than initially anticipated. Sometimes it might be that you pay less than we were expecting for the same reason.
Why our prices may be more expensive than another practice.
We regularly check the prices of other practices in the area to ensure that we are competitive. It is unlikely that we are a great deal different, but our prices are transparent with no hidden surprises.
As discussed above, the cost of materials varies considerably and this will be the most difficult thing for you to assess, another reason why the costs may vary. If you are in any doubt check exactly what materials you will be getting and what's in them. We love when patients ask this as it shows they are really thinking about their health.
The skill and experience of the dentist really does matter. At our practice, we only select dentists, hygienists and therapists who have similar ethos, high ethical and environmental standards and excellent dental skills. We think it is fair to pay them what they are worth.
We hope that this fair pricing policy has answered any questions you may have. If you haven't found what you're looking for here, feel free to call us and our team will be happy to help answer any queries you may have.
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