Dental bridges on NHS?

Dizzy_Ditzy

my dentist has also referred me to the orthotic guys in the maxillo-facial department at my local hospital.

I just want to see if there is any alternative before embarking on such a drastic course of action! I know I should have thought all this through before paying my money, but it didnt occur to me until it is too late.

This way, if there is no viable alternative, I can still go ahead with Plan A, and my dentist has already done the referral to the dental school for restorative dentistry to see what options might be available to me.

I've recently realised that this has been part of a huge lack of confidence on my part- i always cover my mouth when i am laughing, i never smile in front of people i dont know. i havent smiled in a photograph for much longer than i care to remember. Its taking over my life and if i have the smallest chance of being able to do something about it now, I need to at least look at my options. If i dont, I will never know.

Sorry to have been mumbling on again, I am feeling rather down about the whole thing at the moment but deep down, hope that I am doing the right thing and going the right way about it

giantmutantbroccoli

[QUOTE=queen of cheap;29569213
I've recently realised that this has been part of a huge lack of confidence on my part- i always cover my mouth when i am laughing, i never smile in front of people i dont know. i havent smiled in a photograph for much longer than i care to remember. Its taking over my life and if i have the smallest chance of being able to do something about it now, I need to at least look at my options. If i dont, I will never know.

Sorry to have been mumbling on again, I am feeling rather down about the whole thing at the moment but deep down, hope that I am doing the right thing and going the right way about it[/QUOTE]

Unfortunatly what I said about getting referred was pretty much all I know on the subject - I got accepted, but I couldn't say for certain why. Although according to the guy who sorted out the funding, having a dental problem that is not your fault (i.e. not the result of poor dental hygiene) counts in your favour.
What I did want to say is that I completely sympathise with how you feel. There were no pictures of me smiling past the age of 10 because I was so self-concious about my teeth. Now I have a retainer in with false teeth on it, while I wait for the tooth bit of the implants, and the difference it has made to my confidence is enourmous. I was going through my pics on facebook the other night and you can see a kind of cut-off point - there's me aged 18, with goofy gappy teeth hidden behind what I hoped was an enigmatic closed-mouth smile (turns out it just looked a bit creepy lol) and then there's me, aged 24, with a big ol' grin and teeth that look just like normal teeth.
No matter how small the chance it is definitely worth taking, and no matter what treatment you eventually end up getting, just having teeth that look like everyone else's teeth will make a big difference to the way you see yourself. Good luck!

LondonDiva

Why does you rlocal NHS dentist not offer it?

Would he be prepared to do it privately? Check & if he says yes, report him immediately to the PCT for breach of contract.

You can also contact the PALS team at your PCT (https://www.nhs.uk) for help & advice re practices.

Toothsmith

LondonDiva wrote: »

Why does you rlocal NHS dentist not offer it?

Would he be prepared to do it privately? Check & if he says yes, report him immediately to the PCT for breach of contract.

You can also contact the PALS team at your PCT (www.nhs.uk) for help & advice re practices.

Who are you replying to here London?

If it's the OP, then your advice here isn't right.

A denture is a perfectly acceptable NHS option. It provides teeth to fill the gap.

A bridge is an 'upgrade' on this, and as such, an 'NHS' dentist is quite within his contract to offer it privately only.

Dizzy_Ditzy

my dentist only offers it privately, which i cannot afford so I am looking at other options.

The guys at oral surgery I am told that they are the best in the country. If they cant fix my teeth, no one can! Which is why I am doing this. I'm just waiting on an appointment date

welshdent

LondonDiva wrote: »

Why does you rlocal NHS dentist not offer it?

Would he be prepared to do it privately? Check & if he says yes, report him immediately to the PCT for breach of contract.

You can also contact the PALS team at your PCT (www.nhs.uk) for help & advice re practices.

Why would they be in breach? Have you examined the OP and assessed if they are suitable for the treatment in the first place?? Careful with that sort of advice as you could quite easily create a great deal of completely uncessesary heart ache and stress to people that do not deserve it. We have given general guidence and advice on this thread with hypothetical situations but the only people that know what is going on is the OP and examining dentists. Thank heavens for guilty until proven innocent eh?!?

Dizzy_Ditzy

Thanks Welsh Dent- I am one of those weird people who actually READ the signs in the dentist telling me what is covered by each band!!

Although, thinking about it, the examining dentist told me originally that I would only be able to get a bridge by going privately. She also does private work. It was only from coming on here and talking to a friend in work that I found out that there *could* be other options open to me!

I am not taking any of this at face value. I fully accept that I may not be able to get any help either from oral surgery or the dental school, in which case I still have option A to fall back on.

I do hope that this thread might be of help to someone else in my situation.

I certainly know that this thread has been invaluably helpful to me, so thank you to everyone :-)

welshdent

The major problem is the government refuses to stipulate what is and isnt available on the health service. They are privately open about what is and isnt acceptible but refuse to come out publicly and just use terms like clinically appropriate etc. They leave the decision to the dentist who is responsible for all costs on a fixed budget. The dentist is "paid" the same for a bridge as a denture but the lab charges are completely different so that often the costs involved in providing a bridge are often more than the money paid therefore the costs incurred come out of the individual dentists pockets - can you imagine if you were running a private business and you were obliged to sell expensive items at a loss everytime because the government said so? what occurs is that it IS clinically acceptible to have a denture to replace a tooth. It may not be something one LIKES .. but as long as the denture is well designed and fitting well ... it is a clinically acceptible option. There is no automatic compulsion. In fact there are those out there that would argue that a bridge may actually be more harmful due to the need to prepare/crown the adjacent tooth thus potentially compromising that tooth also. Not the case in a simple denture but it does need to be well looked after to prevent exacerbating gum problems. The dentist could then argue that insisting on a bridge is infact a cosmetic treatment and such they are within their rights to withold on the health service. I am not saying any of that is morally or professionally right and you will find people on both sides of the fence that will vehemently argue their corner - all it does is highlight another area that makes this dental contract so utterly poor. What happens is that representatives say one thing to us then refuse to back up their words hanging dentists out to dry

shopaholic2

Eliz22 wrote: »

The NHS dentistry charges are VERY misleading. On the posters it says you can get bridges but in practice I don't think any NHS dentist will do them unless you pay privately. It is cheaper for them to give you a denture. My husband's front tooth was damaged in an accident when he was 16 so it was crowned. This week the post has snapped and his NHS dentist can't repair it. He is only in his 30's & does not want the discomfort (or embarrassment) of a denture for only one tooth. A bridge would be much more suitable but the dentist will only do this privately which we can't afford. I've tried to get help from the NHS low income scheme but they will only help us with NHS charges (which we could afford!) What a bizzare system, if you have to pay 198 you can get help towards it, but if you have to pay 750 you can't get any help!!!!! If we had known it is impossible to get bridge work done on the NHS (despite what the posters say) we would have paid for dentist insurance. I'm so annoyed. The NHS through its innaccurate information is causing me major money worries.

This happened to me in july last year, my fron tooth has been crowned since i was 8, when i was 30 i got a post crown, and last summer the post snapped.
I was devastated, and my options were either an implant or a denture with 1 tooth on.
I opted for the denture,and had one fitted a week later, and today i have just had a new one fitted (now my gum has settled down) and it fits great and looks great, and NO ONE knows.
I am only 40, and i sometimes feel sad that i already have a denture,BUT it looks normal and feels fine,(bit tight today, but will settle down) so I know what your hubby feels,about the embarrassment and discomfort, but its not as bad as you think it will be, and no one really need know!

Dizzy_Ditzy

Update!!

I had my ortho opinion today. He said that my teeth could be pulled back with a train track brace, but because of the size and shape of my teeth going from front to back, it would be complicated, I would need at least 1 tooth "building up" and that I would be braced up for 2 years minimum, but there was still no cast iron guarantee that it would work. He also said that I should consider restorative dentistry, which my dentist has already done. I checked with them this morning and they have recieved my referral but it is anything up to 16 weeks for an appointment.

So. I now have to decide whether to go ahead and have the dentures done and see what (if anything) the dental school can offer me. I can decide against having the work done, wait and see what the dental school could offer me, or just leave things as they are.

This has wrecked my life for long enough, I dont want to carry on like I have been. I want to be able to smile in photographs without the first thing i look at on the picture is how well i have hidden my teeth!!

I am considering having the work done, as I have already paid for it, had the impressions taken and an appointment on Friday for a filling. I am certainly going to discuss it with my dentist in more detail, and have a look at my lovely new teeth!! I will then make my decision over the weekend and see where I go from there.

Thank you all again for your words and advice. Its good to know that I am not alone!