Finding a NHS dentist

For foreigners who have to relocate to the UK for whatever reason, navigating through the British healthcare system can be a bewildering experience.

In the United Kingdom most health services are free of charge for British residents, provided under the National Health Service (the NHS). If you are only visiting and do not meet the residency rules, you will now have a cover the cost yourself, so make sure you have suitable insurance coverage before you travel.

Here is a video explaining how the NHS works:

If all that sounds too complicated, that's because it is. 

Luckily  however, it will go a long way just by understanding some of the basic services:

NHS services includes Primary Care (General Practice GP, Walk-in Centres, Pharmacies, Dentist, Opticians), Secondary Care (hospital services, specialists), Emergency Services (A&E), Mental Health services and a wide range of Community Based services. 

Most Primary Care services you can access directly yourself. You should register with a local GP as this will be your first point of contact for most illnesses (just call them and visit reception to get a form). For minor ailments you can also visit the community pharmacies to buy over-the-counter medications from the pharmacists. If you don't yet have a GP and need to see a doctor, you can access the local Walk-in Centres who can provide some urgent support. You can also access A&E but only for emergency treatments. Apart from Primary Care and A&E, most secondary care services require referrals from your GP so you must see a GP first who then requests a hospital appointment for you. Very few secondary care services will accept self-referral (don't just show up at the hospital asking for a scan!).

Pharmacies, dentists and opticians have a basic coverage component under the NHS. If you require more advanced treatments then you will need to cover the extra cost yourself.

Getting a dentist is perhaps the most confusing part. You can call up any dentists and ask to be registered as a NHS patient (which limits the amount of fees you have to pay for standard treatments). However, because most of them are also running as private businesses, most of the time they will usually put new patients on the waiting list depending on availability, and you will have to pay privately until you can be registered as a NHS patient.

One thing I found quite useful is to look for any dentists that are still taking on NHS patients as a backup (you can do this on NHS Choices website), and then call your current dentist (which may be closer to home) to tell them you plan to switch to another dentist if they still can't register you as a NHS patient. To avoid losing customers most will likely register you as a NHS patient right away.