Options
Dental Advice..........
I had some root canal work done on a back tooth about a month ago by my dentist, initially she said that the tooth may need to be crowned but at a review appointment a week later, my dentist said a filling would do. I'd already paid £50 for the root canal but because I wanted a white filling. I stumped up an extra £100 for it. Anyway, a few days ago I was seeing my hygienist who said that the tooth should have been crowned and not filled due to being able to clean and floss between the tooth and suggested I have it crowned. That's all very well but I'm a bit peeved at maybe having to fork out again for a crown when I've already paid £100 for a filling which my dentist said would suffice.
Another thing which has annoyed me is that a friend has just told me she has all her white fillings on the NHS yet I had to pay for mine!
Anyone know where I stand with this before I approach the dental practice.
Thanks
Another thing which has annoyed me is that a friend has just told me she has all her white fillings on the NHS yet I had to pay for mine!
Anyone know where I stand with this before I approach the dental practice.
Thanks
0
Comments
are you registered as a nhs or private patient? if you are registered as private you can't get nhs treatment
I had a white filling done when my tooth cracked and broke on the nhs cost me £50, it lasted two years, a filling I had had approx 15yrs ago came out and I was waitng to have that filled when the filling just fell out, I wasn't even eating or anything.
so when I went to my filling appointment the dentist did both, including the checkup a few weeks before it cost me £50
I only have those two teeth with fillings so hopefully it will be a long while before i need more
Different dental professionals might approach the same problem in different ways based on their own experience of what's worked with their own patients so it's not necessarily a matter of who's right and who's wrong. In my entirely different area of work, I have a couple of colleagues whom I really respect but I do differ with them on occasion about how to deal with certain practical issues that come up.
You could wait until your next scheduled dental check to raise this matter but if it really does bother you then by all means phone them and set up a specific appointment.
As far as the filling/crown issue goes, different dentists will prefer doing different things. Your dentist has done your root canal treatment and resorted your tooth. The buck stops with her. With all due respect to your hygienist, she isn't qualified enough to know any better than a dentist. As such, I would believe my dentist before my hygienist on that particular issue.
Yes I thought the same, It's the fourth one in from the front but my friends are also all back fillings and white and free!
Thanks for reply.
Fair enough. As I mentioned, different dentists will do different things. It's a clinical call, which means neither option is "wrong" as such. There will be people out there who've had a massive filling after a root canal treatment and it's been in place for many years. There will also be people out there who have had a crown placed immediately after a root canal filling which has broken off a few weeks later. A dentist can make a call about that sort of thing in terms of likely success/failure, but none of them can be definite about it and none of them will claim to have a crystal ball.
It's confusing. One person can go to five different dentists and be given five different treatment plans. And none of them are necessarily "wrong".
I am lucky though as I am NHS. I think you are peeved because you paid extra for a white filling when really it's gonna need to be covered so why pay the extra? I would mention that to your dentist. Did they not offer the cheaper filling and tell you at the time it would need crowning?
Yes you're spot on with your post. I'm peeved because I've just paid out £100 for something which was never going to be adequate and now I may have to pay out ££ to correct it. Originally my dentist did say that she would have to fit a crown but at the review, she said a filling would do and that white would be the best option, so I followed her advice. I'm now feeling a little 'done' tbh, my cosmetic dentist has told me to get it done asap because it's likely to crack and cleaning in between is very hard. I'm feeling she thinks I have money to burn (veneers, teeth whitening, cleaning) and is trying it on. She's new btw, and greek.
I'm with an NHS dentist & had to pay for white fillings. The thing is I don't think theres some water tight "standard" to which dentists are expected to conform.
Whether you need a crown or not depends on the tooth and how damaged it is, it is not a black and white decision so different dentists may have a different opinion on a particular tooth.
On the contrary. There absolutely IS a watertight standard to which dentists are expected to conform.
See my earlier post about it. Dentists can do white fillings on the NHS on any surfaces of front teeth (the first three on each side - incisors and canine). In teeth further back, they can do them on the NHS only on the "side" surface - NOT on the biting surface.
At the end of a treatment plan, the dentist has to submit a "claim" to the NHS for the work they've done. They have to record exactly what they've done, when they've done it and on which surfaces of which tooth or teeth. Someone looks at it and if it doesn't conform to what they're permitted to do on an NHS patient, they simply wouldn't be paid for it. A dentist would NOT be paid by the NHS for doing a white filling in the biting surface of a back tooth. That's why they only do them privately.
Honestly, despite the deep mistrust and frankly insulting stuff you'll read about the dental profession on the Internet and in the press, dentists are more heavily scrutinised and accountable to the authorities than ANY other health care professional.