advice please xxx

Desired_opal

hi my 7 yr old needs fillings and a possible exstraction i have been told that the nhs will only pay for Mercery amalgam fillings as she needs quite a few i dont want her to have black teeth these are for decay inbetween the teeth i have been told that i have to pay for white fillings and it will cost me £240.00 he stressed the MERCURY part of the fillingds to put the pressur on and also explained that she needs to see a hygenest which will cost £30 im not sure how much i should be charged as she is a child and they are small fillings she is regestered with the practise as a nhs patient so why am i being told that the nhs wont pay for a hygenest can somone please give me advice
i dont want amalgam as my daughter had many health problems as a small child and so i dont want the risk im so upset as she brushes well uses muthwash hardley eats sweets and only drinks water does the fact that she was allergic to dairy and dident have any for the 1st few years of her life mea that hewr teeth could have been affected

LondonDiva

The risk of mercury in amalgam fillings is highly exagerated.

There was a US study a couple of years back that tracked amalgam fillings in children and found no cause for concern or elevated risk. I tend to think that if they are so bad, how come pregnant dentists are ok to work with the substance day in & out?

The NHS will only pay for white fillings for front teeth, anything else is cosmetic. However, the NHS WILL pay for the hygenist & if the dentist is insisting you pay privately, I suggest you insist on the NHS clean, or if you are intimidated, contact the PCT's PALS team.

Has the dentist given any indication of why her teeth are so bad, if you are sure she is sugar / fruit etc free? Did he sapeak to your daughter and talk her through proper cleaning of her teeth & did he ask her to be honest about her habits when you're not around to monitor the sweet consumption?

N71

Does this change area to area? Or does it make a difference if they're baby teeth or adult ones?

My 7 year old has just had two (adult) back teeth filled with white on the NHS!!

Savvy_Sue

One of my last NHS fillings was a white one in a back tooth: the dentist reckoned that for that particular hole in that particular place the white stuff would work better, so she used it.

this is a few years ago, mind you, and I think she said something about how she'd record it because technically it should have been amalgam.

Desired_opal

hi my daughter is a big fruit eater i just think its scandalous to charge so much for baby teeth that take about 10mins to do and only a small amount of white filling i dont dispute having to pay someting towards it but i really dont think that we should have to pay for kids as far as i can see treatment is not exactly free for them either

Desired_opal

my daughters diet is pretty good i have only just allowed sugary cerals lately as she had stopped eating breakfast hardly ate lunch and barely any dinner i needed her to start eating again and i have stopped buying the chocolate cerals i have my regestration card from the dentist which says high sugary diet ?????? that has !!!!ed me off

Toothsmith

Desired_opal wrote: »

hi my daughter is a big fruit eater i just think its scandalous to charge so much for baby teeth that take about 10mins to do and only a small amount of white filling i dont dispute having to pay someting towards it but i really dont think that we should have to pay for kids as far as i can see treatment is not exactly free for them either

10 mins to do - but 10 years and an awful lot of money to be in a position to be able to do them!

Toothsmith

Desired_opal wrote: »

my daughters diet is pretty good i have only just allowed sugary cerals lately as she had stopped eating breakfast hardly ate lunch and barely any dinner i needed her to start eating again and i have stopped buying the chocolate cerals i have my regestration card from the dentist which says high sugary diet ?????? that has !!!!ed me off

A high acid diet can look very similar to a high sugar diet.

A lot of fruit, particularly if it's taken in lots of seperate food intakes can be very damaging to the dentition.

Toothsmith

Desired_opal wrote: »

hi my 7 yr old needs fillings and a possible exstraction i have been told that the nhs will only pay for Mercery amalgam fillings as she needs quite a few i dont want her to have black teeth these are for decay inbetween the teeth i have been told that i have to pay for white fillings and it will cost me £240.00 he stressed the MERCURY part of the fillingds to put the pressur on and also explained that she needs to see a hygenest which will cost £30 im not sure how much i should be charged as she is a child and they are small fillings she is regestered with the practise as a nhs patient so why am i being told that the nhs wont pay for a hygenest can somone please give me advice
i dont want amalgam as my daughter had many health problems as a small child and so i dont want the risk im so upset as she brushes well uses muthwash hardley eats sweets and only drinks water does the fact that she was allergic to dairy and dident have any for the 1st few years of her life mea that hewr teeth could have been affected

I think thereis a bit of dubious marketing going on here.

Did he explain any of the effects of some of the nasty chemicals in white fillings? (There are no proven health problems from any filling materials we use - but neither are there any filling materials that don't have something nasty in them!)

I he inssts that there are only private options available for some parts of your child's care, then I woud have a word with the local PCT about him.

alison999

LondonDiva wrote: »

the NHS WILL pay for the hygenist

thats if that practice's hygienist works on the nhs, otherwise the dentist should offer a nhs alternative.

Desired_opal

hiya thanks for your replys, toothsmith i do understand that it takes alot of time and money to become a dentist as im about to pay well over £1000 for treatment i understand that as adults we pay which is why i have waited 5 years to get my teeth sorted i ahve had constant abcesses on one tooth as i couldent afford to pay £45 to have it out , i am not disputing paying for my daughters treatment im disputing the fact that an adult filling was charged at the same price as my daughters she only has tiny baby teeth at the moment .
i do understand that dentists need to earn a wage too but surley the cost of a childs treatment should be cheaper than an adult ??