Report on refugees’ experiences says some compare NHS dentistry provision negatively with that in their home country
One woman in her 30s, Boyka, told the researchers: “We don’t have a dentist. It’s crazy. For us, it’s, like, impossible! In Ukraine the dentist industry is huge, you know, everywhere, and because it’s everywhere you just go and it’s like £10, £8, and you can clean it, whiten it like [a] Hollywood smile!
Some British families who have taken in Ukrainian refugees have noted that their guests organise dental appointments during their visits home.
Do dentists in other countries have the same sense of prestige as British ones? I used to work with a guy whose wife was a dentist and he constantly talked about being a dentist as being on the same level as a doctor. Said that entry requirements for dentistry at university is the same as medical doctors.
I mean, they try. Somewhere here in eastern Europe there's always banter between those two. Dentists wearing the "i save people" mantra and MDs making fun of them for learning 2 teeth each year in school.
There's massive rightfully so prestige in that and they are a doctor by title.
But most aren't that. Which is fine, not every dental appointment is a lower jaw line reconstruction. My mother had her entire bone "replaced" from her teeth to the nose line by a dentist. It was long ass surgery. It's fair those people would like more than the "nhs rate" cleaning service.