Dental care was covered by the NHS when I lived in the UK but the quality of it was much poorer than in Canada (and presumably the US.). There also is not the same culture of having perfect teeth in the UK as there is in Canada and the US.
Yeah. I think the UK is one of the few countries were wealthy people have awful teeth (and donât seem to care?).
I found it very weird coming from US/Canada as society there puts a premium on such things.
1 Like
Correct: itâs the parentsâ job to tell kids to brush their teeth, NOT the schoolsâ. I agree with Polyâs assessment that UK folks seem to not GAF about teeth⌠at least not to nearly the extent as in the US.
Letting a kidâs teeth rot from poor dental hygiene is potentially an issue of abuse and neglect on the part of the particular parents and on a case by case basis that could be considered. (Some kidsâ teeth are weaker than others so I donât think it can automatically be assumed to be neglect, but thatâs a possibility.)
The solution isnât to force teachers to supervise group teeth-brushing. Educate about teeth brushing, sure, as part of health class, absolutely. Enforce? No.
And the fact that the government is using its own crappy ass healthcare system to justify this draconian measure is just so absurd I donât even have the words.
âWeâre so terrible at accomplishing A that you should entrust us to do Bâ is just a REALLY bad argument.
I find wanting perfectly polished white teeth to be weird but looking after the health of your teeth with regular dental care so they donât give you trouble is totally defensible.
Although this guy speaks with a British accent sometimes he was born in Toronto so his teeth look ok imo.
you do know they were prostectic teeth to make fun of the English
Yes, but I have seen much worse English teeth. I thought they could have used crookeder teeth in the movie.
Concurr that those are not that bad vs what you actually see in the UK.
Well, to be fair, the shitty teeth cause higher health costs. Not just in teeth, but everywhere else.
Just sayinâ: if you (a country) want the govât to run national health, you relinquish a lot of freedoms. Like teethbrushing programs.
Now, I agree that only information should disclosed. Pictures of peopleâs rotting teeth (some R-Rated, R for ârottingâ) should do it.
I do recall one instance in first grade where we had our teeth checked (dentist? I hope so), then each of us got some amount of govât-issued toothpaste and toothbrushes based on the observation. As I lived in a suburb still surrounded by farms and run-down shacks, one of the yokels took home several tubes and brushes while the rest of us took one of each. Canât say if he was embarrassed or not.
Itâs just the idea that âBecause weâre utterly incompetent at THIS, you should totally trust us to take care of THAT for youâ that is causing me to 
The real âproblemâ in the UK is that the NHS acts as a monopsony.
It basically became impossible to function as an NHS dentist because the prices were kept artificially low, so you end up with dentists making less than bricklayers, and with massive student debt (over ÂŁ100k) as well. Of course they all flocked to either private dentistry or left the country.
When people complain about this in the UK, they seem unable to join the proverbial dots.
You cannot have dentistry and healthcare services on the cheap. The people that provide these services want to be properly remunerated.
I call these folks the âsomething for nothingâ crowd. They are pervasive in the UK.
2 Likes
There are problems with the healthcare system in the US. The UK is not the role model for fixing any of them.
Did you brush your teeth then chew up the dye tablet & swish around the resulting mixture of spit & dye so that it would stick to any food / plaque in your mouth and show you all the places you missed? I remember doing that in both kindergarten and first grade (not sure if they changed which grade that would happen in or if they just normally did it in both kindergarten and first grade, but I definitely did it both grades.)
The teacher emphasized for a couple of days beforehand that even if we didnât normally brush between breakfast & school, on Friday we absolutely should. Then at school in the morning before lunch we did the thing with the dye and noted all the places we missed. Then we had another dye tablet to take home and do it all again that night to see if we did better.
Thereâs quite a lot of them in the US too; itâs just that so far they havenât been able to successfully destroy our HC system. They think that by lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 0 that every single healthcare provider will just happily accept the resultant massive cut in compensation that will necessarily occur ⌠with no corresponding decrease to quality of care.
I did that in elementary school, never at the dentist. My kids have done it at the dentist (well, nothing to chew up these days, just a wash)
Agreed. And that has been a problem with NHS dentists for decades in the UK.
Canada has just introduced universal dental care for the proportion of the population that currently doesnât have private coverage and are lower earners. (Dental care and drug prescriptions were not previously mandated components of our universal healthcare system). I expect that this will be a bit of a windfall for dentists as it will increase the demand for their services. I think there will continue to be the same high private fees charged for dentistry as the dentists otherwise wonât participate in the expanded system. They are in a strong position. Sun Life received a billion dollar contract to administer the dental claims under the new mandate which I think is better than governments getting into dental claims handling!
1 Like
Same here. Too subtle for me I guess
Do they think those are trans women?