Daily Sceptic reader Freddie Scovell discovered recently that some dentists don’t want the custom of the barefaced and wrote to tell us about it.
I thought you might be interested in events at my dentist recently. I have been a patient for 18 years of this practice and was booked in to have urgent treatment on a broken tooth. When I arrived, a lady jumped in front of me, squirted a gel on my hands and stuck a reader on my forehead. She then placed a box of masks in front of me and said “wear a mask”. I politely explained that I am exempt from wearing a mask. She asked me why. I said “medical reasons”. She then asked to see proof of my exemption. I explained that she should not be asking for such information and I was under no obligation to show any. She then told me to stay where I was and disappeared into an office.
Another lady then appeared and started to argue the point with me that as it was a private building, she could ask what she liked. I politely pointed out that that didn’t exempt her from discrimination law. As we were going round in circles and my tooth was hurting, I relented and showed her an exemption card I keep in my wallet. Just something I downloaded from the internet, nothing that carries any medical credibility.
I was then ushered through to the waiting room. Whilst on the phone I was approached by a man that looked about 12 calling out my name. I hung up the call and asked how I could help. He told me I must leave the practice. I enquired as to why and he said it was because I refused to wear a mask and he must keep his staff “safe”.
I was told I was not allowed ever to return and must seek medical treatment for my tooth elsewhere.
I told this story to Mike Graham live on TalkRadio last week.
Do you know a friendly dentist?
The lunacy is, of course, that it’s not possible to wear a face mask while undergoing dental treatment or examination.
If anyone knows of a friendly dentist free of such discriminatory impulses, ideally in the South East, email us here.
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Who would want to be a patient of this infandous dentist and their odious fascist practice?
Back in 2020, the dentist I go to re-opened, and when they did, we were originally not allowed to wait in the waiting room, and had our temperature measured before being allowed in.
The next time, last year, that was abolished and I was allowed into the waiting room. No other patients though, just a couple of recruitment candidates, I think. My dentist was quite relaxed about me not wearing a nappy (he didn’t either, when not doing work that required it – the last time it was just a routine check, including a couple of x-rays.
Not in the South East, though, so I won’t say which one.
As a retired dentist I am under no illusion that these blue masks work regarding the aerosol spread of viruses. A study in the ‘80s with dentists and masks showed no effect. It also showed that dentists were a very healthy cohort, presumably because their immune systems were being topped up continuously. I have seen no evidence since to change my mind regarding masks. I refuse to wear a mask on the grounds that I would be perpetuating the lie that my wearing one protects me or anyone else. I feel very strongly that it is wrong that vulnerable people have been sold the lie that masks, either mine or theirs, is protecting them.
I have been denied access to my GP’s premises because I won’t wear a mask. My GP is having a partner’s meeting on Monday 31st to discuss my options regarding my ongoing treatment.
I left NHS practice in 1990 when the government started dictating how I was to treat patients. Pre 1990 NHS dentistry worked very well. Most of the current problems with NHS dentistry are government created. Who would have thought?
Two thoughts….dentists are a high risk profession when it comes to coronavirus. They are truly front and centre when working. Grateful they are still willing to do their job. Six months ago, my dentist told me I would have to have a covid test before my next visit, six months later. I was not happy.
yesterday, I attended my six month visit. Took an at home lateral flow test and dentist appt the next day. The lateral flow test was never mentioned by the dentist, he asked if I had the vaxx, I said no. That was it.
Good dentists are hard enough to find in Britain, glad I don’t have to make a change.
I had a similar situation at my dentist last year. I told them I was exempt and was asked for medical evidence. I told them that they could not require me to provide such evidence. I also told them that the masks did not work. After some delay, presumably allowing them to check with the practice administrator, I was allowed in to see the dentist. He was fine and simply shrugged his shoulders when I commented about the nonsense that had just occurred.
It would be reasonable to make a complaint to the General Dental Council. As a GP hearing from the GMC would have chilled my blood!
Why do you want examples of friendly dentists IDEALLY IN THE SOUTH-EAST? There are friendly dentists in the North, too, you know!
Any organisation that requires masks over and above government legislation should have carried out a risk assessment on mask wearing. If it is a public sector body, it should also have carried out an Equality Impact Assessment. Requiring people to wear something that those with a disability are less likely to be able to wear is blatant disability discrimination. It would be good to see sceptical lawyers taking cases pro bono on this issue; preferably class actions.
I suspect that the motives of many businesses are not the advertised ‘keeping people safe’, but the more self-interested, though understandable, ones of keeping their insurance premiums down and trying to prevent their staff having to ‘self isolate’ after ‘testing positive’. Government action would resolve both of those issues.
Medical clinics and hospitals in USA are denying life-saving Ivermectin medicine even with court orders. Big Pharma doing all that they can to push the vaxx and inoculate us while effective and cheap COVID cures exist. There turns out to be censorship that we have never seen before for those who are looking for these treatments. We say over and over again that indepenedent researchers found Ivermectin safe and very effective for these Flu-Corona symptoms. Getting Ivermectin is easy https://ivmpharmacy.com
As a dentist now working overseas I am disturbed but not really surprised by this report. Thankfully the comments provide a few reports of scepticism among colleagues – I wonder how many as a percentage?
Reasons for such behaviour really can’t have anything to do with health. Maybe they’ve been infected by the same desire for control which seems to afflict everyone from local politicians to the managers of Sainsbury’s. These people must really hate their job – and their patients.
Step 1: Make a formal complaint in writing to the practice. Make it clear what you expect – when similar happened to me I demanded a written apology and refund of my dental plan contributions for the last 12 months (which I got). Make it clear that you will escalate to the General Dental Council if they do not respond to your satisfaction. You could also throw in threats to make a big stink on social media etc. and to take them to court. Obviously that needs careful thought. But the GDC is definitely the one to throw in there to make them crap themselves. Any complaint at all is undesirable and if they have any sense they will try to avoid it. Dig up as many links as you can from professional bodies etc. Here’s one I found from the Dental Defence Union: https://www.theddu.com/guidance-and-advice/guides/managing-patients-who-decline-to-wear-a-face-covering
‘it is wise to treat them sensitively and not to operate a ‘no mask, no treatment’ policy. The GDC’s Standards for the Dental Team requires you to treat patients fairly, as individuals and without discrimination, and to comply with the law.’
Step 2: Make good on your threats
Some quotes from the DDU text:
Although it’s a rare occurrence, a few dental patients who decline to wear a mask or other face covering during the continuing coronavirus pandemic are responding to requests to do so with complaints and claims for compensation alleging discrimination.
[…]
Have in place an established, well-thought out written protocol for patients who decline to wear a face covering. Consider seeing such patients at the end of a session, when no other patients will be present, or having them enter the practice through another entrance which avoids them mixing with other patients. Be alert to the risk that other patients may complain if they encounter someone not wearing a mask in public areas.
[…]
Ensure that all patient-facing staff know what the practice protocols and procedures are, and how to manage patients who decline to wear a face covering, to avoid confrontation.
As if this wasn’t bad enough already – it’s basically a guide how discriminate against someone badly for exercising a legal right he has in a hopefully harmless way, the bombshell comes in the last two points:
If a patient states they have a medical condition which has not been previously declared in… Read more »
Well clearly the practice is in breach of the disability act and can now be sued. Happy days…..the money you will make in court will pay for your treatment elsewhere and give you a nice bit of cash in your pocket to boot.
Sometimes only an epithet will do the job.
You could get away with a moderately rude epithet directed at someone.
And by ‘rude’ are we talking poncy southern-affected rude, or don’t-give-a-shit Yorkshire multi-millionaire rude?
No swear words or being rude????? so much for free speech eh tobes.
If you use swear words or say you think someone should be killed or are very rude to another commenter you will be banned.
Could someone please enlighten me what this precisely means? Except – obviously – that people who intend nothing but to violate this policy will switch to using throwaway accounts for the purpose and people who hate it when others disagree with their opininons will now report this is abuse with the intent to get others banned. Typically, after their attempts to tease them into an obvious violations will have failed.
NB: I’ve been a regular, monetary contributor to this site for months. But my social skills are not such that I’d confidently write anything here in the presence of a vague threat like the one above.
There is no such thing as a medical exemption. It is PR put out to minimise the number of people taking advantage of the protections offered by the law. The underlying law refers to a ‘reasonable excuse’. A women traumatised by a rapist holding his hand over her face would have a reasonable excuse for not wearing a mask.
Under the law, only police officers, PCSOs, Transport Police and individuals specifically empowered by the Secretary of State for Health are allowed to query mask usage. Anyone else is committing one or more actionable civil offense, with fines of up to £9000. The offense is committed by both the employee and the employer.
Have a look at the ‘Law or Fiction – separating law from guidelines’ website.
They have some nice pro-formas to escalate from ‘BTW, here is the law’ to ‘keep the evidence from CCTV. It will be called in court’.
This article relates to abuse of H&S legislation to ‘justify’ masks in schools.
This one covers the pretend law regarding face coverings
This one covers the issue of people asking about the ‘reasonable excuse’
I also wonder how the dentist would propose to operate with the patient’s mask in… Read more »
I came off my bicycle badly in the third week of the very first lockdown back in March 2020 – went down hard on my left side and hit my knee, hip, shoulder and the side of my face hard on the kerb – battered, bruised and cuts and grazes blood all down my shirt, I managed to walk home and clean myself up a bit – I bandaged up the cuts and grazes on the left side including my face and once i wipe the blood off they wasn’t as bad as i first thought – black and blue all over my left side …. big black eye, swollen cheek bone … I looked like Quasimodo for a couple of weeks until the swelling started to go down – no broken bones thankfully – i didn’t go to the hospital for a check-up as I probably would have done under normal circumstances – it seemed pointless at the time because they wouldn’t see anyone unless it was life-threatening due to all the covid hyesteria – but in the fall I did suffer two broken upper teeth – one broke immediately and the other was loose and finally broke off… Read more »
Ruddy hell! You weren’t on the “Victory Gin” were you? Mind these days, that’s all there is if you’re in pain! Glad you recovered…apart from the teeth. It’s impossible to get any treatment at the moment where I am, unless, you are prepared to go private, which is what they want of course!
I had something similar on my last visit to the dentist so I told her truthfully that if I wear a mask I’m liable to start a long (10 minutes plus) sneezing fit and said “your call”. She relented. I’d just wait outside until I’m called in.
I had a similar experience getting a front crown repaired in time for a wedding.
I was wearing a mask on arrival at the Dentists but was subjected to the thermometer on the forehead, a squirt of sanitisier and a number of questions by a rather shouty animated female member of staff. I answered her questions, somewhat robotically towards the end as it seemed ridiculous. I then proceeded to the waiting room. On being ushered into the dentists room I was asked if I had a problem with the receptionist, I replied that the young lady had seemed rather agitated and upset about something but I didn’t know what for. In my case the crown was fixed, but then I was going private and paying for it.. On subsequent visits I have never seen the rather shouty animated female member of staff again (thankfully).
better still can we have the name of the surgery concerned so we can all avoid
If you use swear words or say you think someone should be killed or are very rude to another commenter you will be banned.
Hold on! What’s this about? I can go with points two and three, no problem, but “if you use swear words”! Really? Is someone taking the urine here?
necessity is the mother funster of invention, so take the pizzaro with a helping of ingenuity, there’s no need to call people a tide obsessed English king.
Any views on where Master Debater fits in this hierarchy?
I guess we will find out – I might be going outside and not be back for a long time (/BestPlummyAntarcticExplorerVoice)
Possible imminent Dominic Cummings crackup: latest report: “If a tardigrade can exist in a superposition state, why can’t you? Are you in a superposition state right now?”
(A tardigrade is a type of eight-legged micro-animal.)
This comes after his recent interest in possible life on Mars.
In the very short term, a Cummings crackup would serve Boris Johnson – and Carrie Johnson too. In the longer term, it would serve the interests of whoever might be damaged by Cummings’s Substack posts, tweets, anonymous briefings, or evidence to inquiries – which includes some powerful civil servants. Once you’ve gone nuts in public, there’s not much scope for a return.
I hope Cummings lives until he’s a 101 (sarc).
Needs more eyesight tests
Name and shame surely?
Well here goes all those who are behind this crime should be publicly beaten to death and beheaded whilst a pack of hungry dogs devour their useless protein!!!
Lacks a few swear words, for the full punch….
I know they are killing people and I’m supposed to be OK with that.I thought this site was a honey trap from day one.Just look at those behind it and their criminal contacts.
LOL
Whilst I certainly don’t condone death threats, abuse bullying or nastiness, what happened to free speech all of a sudden?
Can we have some clarification on banned words, is “tosser” a swear word? And what constitutes very rude as opposed to just plain rude?
I of course don’t expect the respect towards your patrons, as to receive a personal reply or explanation as to what’s brought on this sudden authoritarian moderation, but it would be nice to know what’s being censored.
I’m happy with the policy as long as it is expanded to taking action the handful of trolls who periodically visit to wind up the rest of us and otherwise generally disrupt the discussions – and provoke a lot of the swearing and rudeness in the first place….
I don’t know.
Don’t interrupt an idiot, and all…
Isn’t it rude calling someone an idiot? Who are you calling an idiot?
I can see these new rules causing chaos.
One man’s troll is another’s dissenter.
One man’s rudeness is another’s robustness.
One man’s “swear word” is another’s mild expression of annoyance or expression of free speech principle.
Once you have these rules, it’s all about the interpretation. It’s clear they have been removing some extreme cases throughout, though there’s no feedback as to how big the problem has been, but the evidence of the posting experience here has been that such removals have only been for genuinely quite extreme cases. Which is as it should be.
Setting out these rules and making them so prominent is asking for trouble, imo.
That rare once in a lifetime event just happened.
I agree with everything, you just said.
When did this happen?
‘Whilst I certainly don’t condone death threats…’
Except ‘say[ing] you think someone should be killed’ is not necessarily a death threat. If I say I think P should swing from a rope because P has intentionally sacrificed some human beings ostensibly in order to save some other human beings, that’s not a death threat, nor is it a call to violence; it’s advocating an ideal situation where legal proceedings result in a conviction and sentence of death.
So once again the stalwart of the Free Speech Union cannot even be clear when he’s trying to curtail certain speech.
‘And what constitutes very rude as opposed to just plain rude?’
Indeed. This is bizarre. Who gets to decide what constitutes ‘rude’ and ‘very rude,’ and thus what constitutes a jump from one to the other? This is exactly the type of arbitrariness the Free Speech Union claims to oppose.
You couldn’t make it up.
Exactly, i’m just looking for clarification to decide if I should stick around to get banned.
I suppose, if nothing else, this serves to demonstrate that one might not need much knowledge of human health or medicinal matters to become a dentist.
It must be all that practice they do on pigs’ heads.
Sorry but they are ALL cunts. They genuinely believe masks and hand sanitiser are essential. As for opening up their waiting rooms and treating their CUSTOMERS as anything other then lepers it will take a lot of de-programming. For now, just record your bad treatment and log it, I’m sure class action lawsuits for shops and services that continue with the covid theatre will make them stop very shortly.
“If you use swear words or say you think someone should be killed or are very rude to another commenter you will be banned.”
Is this serious? New policy?
And could we be furnished with a list of said disallowed “swear words” (appropriately obfuscated, of course)?
And a precise, objective definition of what “very rude” means, please?
I’d prefer if they would just drop such them – wide open to abuse via subjective interpretation and enforcement, and more suited to an infants school than a grown up discussion forum.
Swearing is part of adult conversation in the real world, and is useful provided it is used in moderation. The less it is used the more effective it is when used.
As for being “very rude” to someone, well that’s also part of robust debate. It’s self-discrediting if used unreasonably or to excess, but the onus on anybody feeling offended should be to grow up and grow a thicker skin. They should not be pandered to by such protection. That way lies the disastrous offence-mongering culture we see plaguing our wider society today.
As for saying someone should be killed, well that depends. Saying someone ought to be murdered is very different from saying someone should face a lawful death penalty.
Exactly. But I rather hope that DS spends at least a little time attempting to list “swear words” and to define “very rude” – the policy would quickly collapse.
Holly *uc* it’s happened twice, (ref) you’re talking lots of sense today.
Thanks, Marcus. 🙂
I just posted similar on the Today’s Update thread.
Didn’t realise you people had raised it here.
Does “WTF?” count”
ffs of course it does.
Its funny isn’t it that dentists can’t do any proper treatment under the NHS but can if you’re willing to suddenly go private.
The BBC appear to have totally ignored the fact that everyone attending the parties at No10 survived