Been told I have to pay for my 15 year old daughters root canal work. Is this correct

[caverncity]

This is a long story and a long drawn out dental work for my 15 year old daughter. To be brief our last dentist who has just finished NHS was told by our dental hospital that my daughter needs 2 root canals doing, our old dentist said he won’t do it as he doesn’t do that type of work and needs a specialist.
Anyway we have recently found another NHS dentist and we went there yesterday for checkups, he too has said he won’t do the work and she has to see a specialist at a cost of £600 per root canal.
Now I know the NHS dentist has undergone a big change but I was always under the impression that under 18 years and all your dental work is free or am I wrong, Daughter is very upset as she needs other work and is getting past from pillar to post as she has two teeth missing at the front and may need her gum splitting, but until the root canal work is done they wont look into that yet. As I said it’s a long story.

Also on another note my wife has been suffering with a strange taste in her mouth and really bad chemical type smelly breath, she visited her dentist many times who took x-rays etc but to no avail. They couldn’t find anything wrong. The other day she noticed a small white lump on her gum and when we went for our checkups yesterday at our new dentist he too noticed it and took an x-ray where he found that the previous dentist who had fitted a crown had bent the screw whilst screwing it into the bone and perforated the gum/bone. Dentist has said she will need an implant at a cost of over £1000 or a bridge at a cost of £600. He said that’s what’s causing the smelly breath, strange taste and has also now caused a problem with her gums.
Surely the other dentist would have seen this or he has and decided to ignore it due to his incompetence. Would she be better making an official complaint?
Thanks

[alison999]

Now I know the NHS dentist has undergone a big change but I was always under the impression that under 18 years and all your dental work is free or am I wrong,

on the NHS it would be free, did you ask why he wont provide this for you on the NHS?

the previous dentist who had fitted a crown had bent the screw whilst screwing it into the bone and perforated the gum/bone. Dentist has said she will need an implant at a cost of over £1000 or a bridge at a cost of £600. He said that’s what’s causing the smelly breath, strange taste and has also now caused a problem with her gums.
Surely the other dentist would have seen this or he has and decided to ignore it due to his incompetence. Would she be better making an official complaint?
Thanks

id ask the dentist that youre seeing now what he thinks, he may even be able to help with you with your complaint.

[caverncity]

my wife went back to our old dentist today and was told that no NHS dentist will do root canal work and the cost is the same as if she was an adult.
This I find strange as there is a big poster on the wall that says Band 2 inc. any root canal work. She didnt think of pointing this out.

We where told that on one side she has an abscess under the tooth and on the other side decay that wasnt removed by her dentist previous, when he did a filling on said tooth.
So would this be why they wont do it? is it too complicated, if so then why is the dental hospital asking the dentist to do it when thye know they cant. This is why we feel we are getting passed from pillar to post. Even the dentist has said there is no reason why the hospital cant do it but they themselves are being incompetent too.
i.e. Dental Hospital appointment early June, at appointment was told letter will be sent to Dentist. Arrives 28th August, letter dated 8th August, postmarked 27th August.

[alison999]

my wife went back to our old dentist today and was told that no NHS dentist will do root canal work and the cost is the same as if she was an adult.
This I find strange as there is a big poster on the wall that says Band 2 inc. any root canal work. She didnt think of pointing this out.

We where told that on one side she has an abscess under the tooth and on the other side decay that wasnt removed by her dentist previous, when he did a filling on said tooth.
.

to me, the previous dentists' work is irrelevant. your current dentist is responsible for her care. if you find it easier write them a letter and explain (not that they wont know) what is covered in band 2. ask them straight out why they will not provide this on the nhs. then ring your local pct to let me know what that dentist is telling you. some patients at my work have to pay privately for rct, but there are many reasons as to why. one patient said he does not brush his teeth, therefore the dentist will not take the time to save a tooth, when the patient isnt doing anything to prevent the problem.

write them a letter if you prefer or call them tomorrow. the sooner, the better. ask to speak to the manager or the dentist directly (usually never happens) chances are they'll have to call you back so call them asap.

[Toothsmith]

Why are your 15 yr old daughter's teeth in need of so much work?

Part of the problem here is that teeth in someone so young have to last so much longer than anyone 10, 20 or 30 years older. Plus the root canals were more immature when they died, that they are bigger, and there is less solid dentine in there, so less to file away at.

I am purely private, and so my decisions for patients are made knowing that the patient has to pay something whatever I decide - and the patients that come to me are aware of that, and not expecting anything for 'free'.

I tell you that just so that when I say that in the same situation, I too would refer such a case out of my practice and into the hands of a specialist. Not because of anything to do with the money, but simply that in that situation, it's the right thing to do.

Obviously, with 2 root fillings necessary though, something is going very wrong somewhere with how she's looking after her teeth. I really would be having serious thoughts as to whether her best interests were being served with complex, expensive dental work.

Root filled teeth will almost certainly need crowning within a year or so (more expense) in order to give them any medium-term chance of survival, and I would be warning that in one so young chances are those teeth would be lost before she was 30 anyway.

This would give her fair warning to get saving up for implants though, (or dentures if self-care didn't improve)

I really think you need to find a dentist for your daughter who can spend a lot of time with her and identify where things are going wrong, and inspire her to look after whatever she has left.

I don't think in this case, your NHS dentist is doing what they're doing out of concerns for their funding or targets, but are thinking of the best chance for saving the teeth for the longest possible time.

I don't think, though, that the dentist your daughter needs can be found working on the NHS. I think you will have to accept that the help she needs will cost quite a bit of money.

As to who's to blame for what - you can work that out later when things are getting sorted.

It's quite possible that someone wasn't doing something they should have been.

One thing is for certain though - if there wasn't decay in a tooth in the first place, there would be no decay to 'leave' under any fillings.

Sometimes, if fillings look very deep, it can be a calculated decision to leave the very deepest bits in the hope that they may harden up again - as opposed to getting every bit of decay out, but exposing the nerve and setting up an abscess anyway.

When you're looking at these things years later - particularly if a patient has changed dentists often, or attended irregularly, it can be hard to judge what decisions the original dentist had to make.

[caverncity]

thanks for the replies but to add more to reason why she has to have the root canals, this has been going on for over two years now.
She was refered to the dental hospital where she had an x-ray and they found that two of her font teeth, I believe her second teeth where not growing normally (crooked) and her first teeth where stopping them from coming through, we where told that it would be wise to remove the teeth to help the others come through, but as they where coming through crooked she would need a brace but to keep the brace in place, the back teeth had to be perfect hence the root canals. Problem is her two front teeth are taking forever to come through.



to me, the previous dentists' work is irrelevant.

The reason why the visit to our old dentist was to get the letter that was supposed to go to our new dentist

[Toothsmith]

There is something still not quite right here.

It's much more worrying to me that at 13, she had 2 back teeth that were so heavily filled that they were considered necessary to root fill.

Was extraction of these teeth considered?

If braces were necessary anyway, why not remove those molars too, and close the spaces?

Better than having them removed at 25-30 and either having gaps or having to pay for bridges/implants.

[krona]

My 13 year old daughter attended for a routine check up, xray etc. The dentist said she needed a deep filling in a molar refilled. Drilled out exposing the root and put some stuff in and then filled it with a white filling. Before leaving she said if she gets pain to get her a course of antibiotics and if that did not work she would need root canal treatment. She had no pain or problems until she meddled. 1 week later guess what she has pain and sensitivity. Sounds like she should have left alone or not drilled so deep??

Should she have antibiotics or will this this just increase bacterial resistance in that tooth? is it better to go straight to canal root treatment / would you go to a canal root specialist? we are NHS and she would get it free but having read up it sounds like you stand better chance of success with private or more experienced ??

[Toothsmith]

I take it she went on something she'd seen on an X-ray?

If she'd left it alone, then it would have flared up one day - probably at a hughly inconvienient time, and the decay underneath would have been much worse for having been left.

I can't say what would be best without seeing it. Antibiotics will take away the initial infection, but won't cure anything.

Something will almost certainy have to be done.

All I've said above applies to you.

If it's going to be root filled, it needs to be done really, really well. That will be expensive, and with her being so young, may only buy another 10-20 years for the tooth.

[caverncity]

There is something still not quite right here.

It's much more worrying to me that at 13, she had 2 back teeth that were so heavily filled that they were considered necessary to root fill.

Was extraction of these teeth considered?

If braces were necessary anyway, why not remove those molars too, and close the spaces?

Better than having them removed at 25-30 and either having gaps or having to pay for bridges/implants.

After re-reading the dentist hospital letters and speakng to my wife as she wasnt here before, the reason why at least one of the molars needs a root canal is, it is her milk tooth. there is not one growing to replace it.
She has at least three milk teeth, 2 bottom 1 top and there is none growing through to replace any of them.
They want to try and save the molar so she can have braces on top and bottom. One of the molars which was filled has an abscess under it.

Also she had her canines removed over 12 mths ago and her new ones still have yet to break the skin. Thats what upsetting her the most, two big gaps on show.

I believe its all down to genetics than looking after her teeth and there is more to it too, problems with her teeth not growing properly and thin enamel.


Was extraction of these teeth considered?


I would say no, or nothing was mentioned.

[Toothsmith]

Is it milk teeth they're considering root filling then?

This is very unusual, and way above what a GP dentist should be expected to perform, especiallly if it's expected to last more than a couple of years.

There are pulp treating techniques for baby teeth, but these are usually just to help a tooth last until it would normally fall out anyway.

[caverncity]

Is it milk teeth they're considering root filling then?


yes they are

[Toothsmith]

This should be done in a dental hospital setting, and I believe they are completely wrong to be referring it back out again.

[caverncity]

This should be done in a dental hospital setting, and I believe they are completely wrong to be referring it back out again.


thats what we cant believe is happening, as I said previous passed from pillar to post. We are even having problems speaking to the dental hospital, she is either never there or when you do get an appointment she refers it out again or takes ages to send letters out, hence its taken over 2 years.

We may contact the PCT and see what they say.
thanks for your help.

[Toothsmith]

Just out of interest, which dental hospital is it?

PM me if you don't want to publish it here.

[Mrs pbradley936]

I have some experience of this and my son was referred to an oral surgeon on the NHS. A couple of his milk teeth did not fall out and the new tooth instead of growing down and pushing out the milk tooth was growing inwards across the roof of his mouth. He had oral surgery and they freed up the tooth which by now was right in the very centre of the roof of his mouth, then they lassoed it (really they did!) and every month our so pulled it towards where they wanted it to be. He was transferred from the oral surgery to the orthodontic people and had various braces and procedures for about 3 years but he has a wonderful set of teeth now.

[krona]

My 13 year old daughter attended for a routine check up, xray etc. The dentist said she needed a deep filling in a molar refilled. Drilled out exposing the root and put some stuff in and then filled it with a white filling. Before leaving she said if she gets pain to get her a course of antibiotics and if that did not work she would need root canal treatment. She had no pain or problems until she meddled. 1 week later guess what she has pain and sensitivity. Sounds like she should have left alone or not drilled so deep??

Should she have antibiotics or will this this just increase bacterial resistance in that tooth? is it better to go straight to canal root treatment / would you go to a canal root specialist? we are NHS and she would get it free but having read up it sounds like you stand better chance of success with private or more experienced ??


done some phoning around found someone who does nothing but RCT and £500 sounds reasonable ,

[caverncity]

Just out of interest, which dental hospital is it?

PM me if you don't want to publish it here.

hi it is Liverpool

[LillyJ]

My Sister had root canal treatment, and there was some issue with the colour of the filling.
Basically she wanted a white filling, but this couldn't be done on the NHS, so she was williing to pay for the filling and get the rest on the NHS.
But you can't go half private half NHS so she had to have a temporary filling, then go back a week later for a white one, which was done privately. Was a bit of a complicated way round it but that was the only way.

[caverncity]

after a talk and re-visit to the dental on Thursday my daughter is finally getting all the work inc root canals there.

[Toothsmith]

That's good news!