Just got back from dentist.....want to cry!

Petal_3

Why me? I've spent thousands on my teeth (I have crowns and bridges due to unfortunate accidents etc)....always looked after them...regular hygiene visits/check ups. Now they want another £3700 PLUS a possible £1060 to sort out one of my front teeth (had an abcess recently). How can one tooth cost sooooo much to fix?

Since joining this board I've done all I can to reduce my outgoings, transferred any debt to 3.9% LOB and 0% and have been working towards my debt free date (and really looking forward to it). It just keeps getting further away....this will take FOREVER to pay off! :mad:

AND....I'm on a diet and I sooooo want to tuck into a HUGE cake or something or a LARGE stiff drink.

Rant over....sorry people....just feeling REALLY sorry for myself right now. How do I go about getting an alternative quote for the same work? Are all dentists soooo expensive?

It's Poo!

zincoxide

Are they gonna fix it with Gold or Platinum?!

Seems very excessive to me, I'd certainly question the motive behind this and would be seeking the advice of another dentist!

Just give a dentist a call and ask how much it would be for a quick check up, most do them for around the £35 mark, even the private ones! That'll probably be cheaper in the long run, someone else may have a better, cheaper idea though!

Only other thing I can think of is going to a dental hospital and get it checked out by the students, normally it is free and they are supervised by their tutors!

Bossyboots

Members here called Toothsmith and Teerah are dentists. Send one or both a PM and ask them if they could respond on the thread or explain by PM.

My OH has just come away from the dentist with an estimate for £1600 for work and crowns on five teeth. I cannot believe the estimate you have is actually correct. I wonder whether the computer has added an extra nought on the end.

Petal_3

Thanks for that! I have a fully itemised quote...so unfortunately nothing as simple as a nought added on! _pale_

Have had a big voddie tonnie.....still feel devastated.....with slightly fuzzy edges;)

G'night....

Toothsmith

I'd need to know exactly what was quoted for.

The problem is that the only thing that has a chance of lasting you all your life with very little maintenance is a tooth that's had absolutely nothing done to it.

Once something is done, that thing has a lifespan, and when it comes to the end of it, the next thing is always a bit more complicated. This is why I hate people having major stuff done for cosmetic reasons. It won't last!!

To Zincoxide (A dental material!!), who asked if it would be done in gold or platinum, the answer could well be that both these metals will be involved! If you went to a jeweller and asked for a tooth sized piece of jewellery to be made in precious metals, and it must be accurate to within 1/100th of a millimetre, how much do you think it would cost? And that would just be our technicians fee.

There is the cheaper option of a tooth out and a plastic denture!

The real difference between private & NHS stuff though, as well as what you can do, is that the private stuff is much more likely to last longer.

chinagirl

I have just registered all 5 of my family at a brand new NHS dentist, just opened in my village. Result !!!
My old dentist used to be NHS, but me and hubby got a 'Dear John' letter from them, saying either 'pay to join our private club, or go fly a kite' To cap it all, they had just employed some new foreign dentists, from Poland I think, who could not speak English, and the dental nurse could not understand him when my friend was having a check-up, so much so, that the dentist was having to stop looking in her mouth, and point to the tooth on the chart that he was looking at each time. My friend was then further insulted to be presented with a bill for this farce. Room for much needed improvement in this system I think.

Petal_3

Hi Toothsmith and...thanks!

Study Models £75
Temporary Simple partial denture £220
Extraction - not surgical £116
Periapical Radiograph £10.75
Titanium Implant £1584
Cover Screw for implant £150
Bio-gide membrane £120
Bio-oss Bone substitute per vial £90
Periapical Radiograph £10.75
Abutment post over implant £320
Provisional Crown £140
Crown Preparation premium anterior £845
plus - consultation feed paid last night £40

= £3721.50 (if I have the implant and bone graft done at the same time)

If not, a further

Bio-oss Bone Substitute per vial £90
Bio-gide Membrane £120
Bone regeneration surgical fee £850

= £1060

I feel like I'm whinging now - they are extremely good dentists and have all the latest equipment and I know that has to be paid for....but...I had a really restless night last night worrying about the best way to pay/how long it would take to pay off etc etc. It is such a lot of money....

Any advice/help would be very much appreciated.

AussieLass

Wow. :eek: For just one tooth. That's pretty awesome. No wonder you've been stressing about it. Anyone would. ((((((poor you)))))) I hope you find a cheaper alternative.

Toothsmith

I suspected this.

Yes, you're not having your tooth fixed, you're having your tooth out, and it's being replaced with an implant.

This is far and away the best way of having a tooth replaced, as it does no damage to anything else around it. It also has very good long-term survival rates.

It is most likely how I would have a tooth replaced if I ever lost one.

The downside though, as you've found out is that it's not cheap. Your quoted prices seem in line with the place I refer my patients to if they need the same thing doing. (I don't do implants myself)

Have they discussed alternatives with you? Have they assumed that because you've had things fixed in the best possible way in the past that you will want the best possible treatment this time? I really wouldn't change dentist, as I think that if you have one who has gone to the bother and expense of getting trained in implants, you really have a good dentist there.

It could well be that the teeth either side of the gap caused by the tooth that needs to come out are not suitable or strong enough to support a bridge, so your only other option would be a single tooth denture. This would be much cheaper, but would you want it?

Best of luck with it all.

Toothsmith

chinagirl wrote:

I have just registered all 5 of my family at a brand new NHS dentist, just opened in my village. Result !!!

I hope you'll be as happy after next April when the new regulations and charging system for NHS dentistry kicks in! That's the thing that's driving most established practices out of the NHS at the moment.

Petal_3

Thanks Toothsmith. She mentioned the less costly alternative of a denture but I don't want that. My 2 front teeth are crowns on posts, the two either side of those - one is a crown and the other is bridged to the front tooth. The problem tooth is the single front tooth (not the bridged one). I first had an abcess in 1984 and had my gums opened and cleaned etc....then I got another on the other side and had the same procedure again (my gums look like train tracks).

Dentist said that it's OK for the minute and she's not desperate to get in there and do it right now. She suggested that I could wait for 6 months and have it x-rayed again to see if the bone loss is worse - but not to leave it any longer than that.

I guess I just have to get on with it......:(

So, money saving head on......take their offer of 5% off, join their monthly dental plan (which actually saves around £10 pa) and get a £100 voucher against my treatment, get OH to join too and he can transfer his £100 to me and pay it off 0% over a year (I have a 5 yr loan finishing in 4 months and I was sooo looking forward to it ending so I could chuck the extra money at my cc debts....but I guess my teeth will have to come first). Last month I was hit with a £1200 bill for new clutch, service etc. I thought THAT was bad enough.....surely, there can't be anything else looming....can there? :eek:

Thanks all x