NHS dentist fobbing me off, or has he got a point?

Toothsmith

Apologies, - i'd not read the full thread.

murphydog999

Annonay wrote: »

Are you making this up, or are your teeth movable, or has he treated the wrong tooth??? :huh:

AS an MSE'er, you really should be looking for the best price, so if the work was done on the NHS you should only be charged £48 *

White fillings may look nicer than amalgam ones, but ask yourself do you really want to compromise functionality over vanity, especially in a UL5 tooth where no one will probably ever see it unless they specifically look for it.

Good grief! What does it matter where my tooth is???? When I first posted I considered it to be near the back, but in dentist terms it is not considered so, so I have corrected myself. OK!!

If you were as thorough as you make out, you would have seen that not only was I referred to a private practice by an NHS dentist - not acceptable - I couldn't get into an NHS practice for 2-3 months. As I had just had treatment for an abscess above the tooth in question, I wanted to be seen as soon as possible. The cost in my opinion was worth it.

When I smile the tooth can be seen quite clearly, I was offered the white filling as it can be seen.

I don't feel the need to explain myself any further. And as for being MSE, I've just been to Tesco's deli and bought some rare roast beef slices, instead of spam! Shoot me at dawn, why don't you!!!!

SparkyG

murphydog999 wrote: »

I don't feel the need to explain myself any further. And as for being MSE, I've just been to Tesco's deli and bought some rare roast beef slices, instead of spam! Shoot me at dawn, why don't you!!!!

How dare you come on this MSE forum boasting of buying rare roast beef slices, instead of spam! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

The nit-picking police will soon be after you

pollypenny

I'm sitting here feeling sorry for myself after an extraction this morning. And it was a cracked back right, next to my wisdom tooth!

Today is the end of a long saga, involving great efforts to save the tooth from two dentists in the practice, as well as some pain for me.

Some of the root had broken off, hence the pain around my nose and sinuses, there was also a longitudinal crack.

I was very reluctant to lose it, no need for high cheekbones , thanks.

However, the gap is very far back and unless I start yawning widely in public it can't be seen.

I can only commend our NHI practice.

frames1_uk

Interesting thread. My friend was advised to have root canal work on a bottom tooth just before the incisor(?) the NHS dentist said he 'could' do it but couldn't guarantee success OR he could refer to his colleague, who would do it privately as he was more of a specialist so it would be more likely to work.
This colleague he referred to happens to be my NHS dentist, so he's obviously doing private work also.
So this must mean that some dentists are more competent than others in this practice or is this just another money making exercise.
My friend still has a temporary filling on the front of this tooth as he hasn't decided what to do yet. (couple of months now)

brook2jack

Some dentists have areas of expertise and invest in specialist equipment. Welshdent who posts on here is a mostly nhs dentist but has spent thousands on a specialist microscope , training and other equipment.

There is no such thing as a nhs dentist. All dentists in general practice are self employed who have piecemeal contracts to provide an amount of treatment on the nhs. Almost all will also do varying amounts of private work as well.

The equipment to do endodontics on a difficult tooth can be very expensive , a microscope can cost £15,000 , the disposables for one patient can start at £40 with specialist cements like mdta £50 a go.

As part of informed consent a dentist has to inform a patient that for complicated root treatment the specialists rates of success are higher than a general practitioners.

frames1_uk

ok thank you. I hadn't considered that they might use different equipment for their NHS patients. They are both quite young Romanian dentists, so I would imagine their training would be similar. The equipment bit hadn't occurred to me.

welshdent

brook beat me to it.... its not just training. As with all walks of life, some people are better than others. Robbie Savage received the same youth training as the likes of paul scholes and ryan giggs. Savage was a good player but even he would admit those 2 were better. We all develop interests too. I am interested in root canal treatments and as a result I have actively sought additional training. Significantly more than that provided at under graduate level. We can not be brilliant at every aspect of dentistry so it is wise to refer on to those more competent. One of the (many) problems with the NHS dental contracts we have is it pretty much assumes we are all as good as each other at everything meaning referral to colleagues for NHS care is not really possible. As brook pointed out there is no such thing as an NHS dentist. We simply provide work on a contractor basis. I myself see mostly NHS patients but take private referrals from nearby colleagues for root canal treatments from time to time on people originating from an NHS course of treatment.

welshdent

Also root canal treatment is not a way to make lots of money! It may not look that way but for those of us in the know, its a very time consuming fiddly and technically demanding procedure with little good will from the recipient because every one hates "having root canals" requiring a lot of very expensive equipment. The files we use can run to £20 - 30 per parient and thats not counting anything else at all. There are far easier procedures that are far more cost effective.

frames1_uk

but root canal is a procedure that is available on the NHS and the colleague who one dentist was referring onto is also an NHS dentist (mine) so he will be doing that treatment on his NHS patients. So is it just the luck of the draw which NHS dentist you get assigned to at a practice? ie if you're with A you can get NHS root canal, if you're with B, you'll have to pay private even though you're in the same NHS practice, doesn't seem right somehow.