root canal treatment - NHS and private costs & pros and cons

marionsteve

i cant say that i think private RCt is better than NHS, as my private one has just failed..... a huge lump, not painful, antibiotics will not clear it. I have now been told £400 to redo it, 50/50 chance of success, or have it out. Apparently NHS do not do failed RCT;s ... its a dilemma I could do without....

welshdent

Not really as simple as that marion. Root fillings are NOT 100% effective. End of story. There can be no guarantees with the human body no matter how much money you throw at it. The difference is the NHS do not pay us to provide them and as such to cover over heads some NHS practitioners either will not take on demanding complicated treatments or some may just not do them well in the first place. To do them properly IMO you need a LOT of gear, all of which is expensive and all of which must be paid for by the practitioner ... the same practitioner that does not get paid to do them. Privately there should be little excuse as you can charge appropriately and take the necessary time. The practitioner should be able to acquire much of what makes it a better job such as magnifiction and tools. It still wont guarantee a success though.

sophieschoice

marionsteve wrote: »

i cant say that i think private RCt is better than NHS, as my private one has just failed..... a huge lump, not painful, antibiotics will not clear it. I have now been told £400 to redo it, 50/50 chance of success, or have it out. Apparently NHS do not do failed RCT;s ... its a dilemma I could do without....

After nearly ten years my private one failed too. I took the decision not to have it redone and had the tooth extracted this morning. It was a bit of a no brainer (to me) to spend another £400 when the cost of taking it out was under £50.

marionsteve

sophieschoice wrote: »

After nearly ten years my private one failed too. I took the decision not to have it redone and had the tooth extracted this morning. It was a bit of a no brainer (to me) to spend another £400 when the cost of taking it out was under £50.

that is kind of how i am thinking, but they want to refer me to another dentist to have it extracted, with sedation for some reason the dentist doesnt think she can just pull it.... i have been thinking of nothing else all of today, and just do not know hat to do.... it is my first double tooth on the bottom and is HUGE!! i am then thinking if i have it out, i will want something in the gap later on down the line....then it will cost me as much... i dont understand how 2 types of penicilin seem to kill the infection, then it pops up again, but nobody seems to really know what the problem is exactlty...they have assumed it is a failed RCT.... would this not be visible from the xray ??? i dont kno wether to get another opinion or not...... i am scared that when these antibiotics run out, it will come back, and i wont be able to have any more..

marionsteve

welshdent wrote: »

Not really as simple as that marion. Root fillings are NOT 100% effective. End of story. There can be no guarantees with the human body no matter how much money you throw at it. The difference is the NHS do not pay us to provide them and as such to cover over heads some NHS practitioners either will not take on demanding complicated treatments or some may just not do them well in the first place. To do them properly IMO you need a LOT of gear, all of which is expensive and all of which must be paid for by the practitioner ... the same practitioner that does not get paid to do them. Privately there should be little excuse as you can charge appropriately and take the necessary time. The practitioner should be able to acquire much of what makes it a better job such as magnifiction and tools. It still wont guarantee a success though.

thanks, very informative, can i ask if i have it redone, is the success rate approx 50/50 in your experience???

sophieschoice

marionsteve wrote: »

that is kind of how i am thinking, but they want to refer me to another dentist to have it extracted, with sedation for some reason the dentist doesnt think she can just pull it.... i have been thinking of nothing else all of today, and just do not know hat to do.... it is my first double tooth on the bottom and is HUGE!! i am then thinking if i have it out, i will want something in the gap later on down the line....then it will cost me as much... i dont understand how 2 types of penicilin seem to kill the infection, then it pops up again, but nobody seems to really know what the problem is exactlty...they have assumed it is a failed RCT.... would this not be visible from the xray ??? i dont kno wether to get another opinion or not...... i am scared that when these antibiotics run out, it will come back, and i wont be able to have any more..

Well it did show on x-ray that mine needed re-doing or extracting. The dentist said these things do have a habit of failing and he couldn't guarantee redoing it again would last hence my decision to have it out. Mine was a huge double tooth too but an upper one. I thought about sedation but in the end didn't go for it. It did take a fair amount of pulling and I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself tonight.

marionsteve

sophieschoice wrote: »

Well it did show on x-ray that mine needed re-doing or extracting. The dentist said these things do have a habit of failing and he couldn't guarantee redoing it again would last hence my decision to have it out. Mine was a huge double tooth too but an upper one. I thought about sedation but in the end didn't go for it. It did take a fair amount of pulling and I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself tonight.

You poor thing...... fingers crossed it will feel much better very soon....

welshdent

It depens on why it failed really. If it failed because the original was not done properly then it offers a good chance of success. If it failed because there is something unseen like a crack in the tooth then it wont work. If it failed because the coronal seal i.e. the crown/filling leaked causing the whole restoration to leak and become reinfected then again it can probably work quite well. Re treatments DO however have a lower chance of success than primary treatments. Also there may be an issue of resistant bacteria.

It is generally accepted though that good results are obtained if isolation by rubber dam is used and sodium hypochlorite irrigation is used. Further to that I find that good lighting and magnifications helps to improve the quality of the job done.
Without seeing you though it is hard to comment.

marionsteve

welshdent wrote: »

It depens on why it failed really. If it failed because the original was not done properly then it offers a good chance of success. If it failed because there is something unseen like a crack in the tooth then it wont work. If it failed because the coronal seal i.e. the crown/filling leaked causing the whole restoration to leak and become reinfected then again it can probably work quite well. Re treatments DO however have a lower chance of success than primary treatments. Also there may be an issue of resistant bacteria.

It is generally accepted though that good results are obtained if isolation by rubber dam is used and sodium hypochlorite irrigation is used. Further to that I find that good lighting and magnifications helps to improve the quality of the job done.
Without seeing you though it is hard to comment.

many thanks for taking them time to reply.... i appreciate it ......

POPPYOSCAR

I am confused can anyone clear this up for me?

My Oh has just been to his dentist and has been told that he needs root canal treatment and at a cost of £300 because this treatment is not available under the NHS. I have looked it up and from what I can see it is available under the NHS and also when I had mine done it was done under the NHS(although this was some years ago).

Can anyone throw any light on this before he speaks to his dentist about it?

Thanks.