Toothsmith-some advice please?

tsb

I have been to my NHS dentist today after finishing a course of antibiotics for an abscess on a heavily filled rear molar tooth. The dentist confirmed that the tooth is OK and suitable for root canal procedure to save the tooth from extraction. Unfortunately, he said, this was out of his expertise but could refer me to a specialist about 30 miles away. As this is a private dentist the cost would be approx £400. I asked if there is an NHS dentist that would perform the root canal but was told it requires specialist equipment and expertise. Does this sound correct to you? My husband has had root canal fillings with this NHS dentist, do some teeth require special equipment? I find it hard to believe that ONLY private treatment can save this tooth and the NHS can ONLY extract it. Any advice/comments much appreciated.

conspirator

My root canal was done by my local dentist,

as far as i remember, drill tooth, remove nerve, clean up and leave.

ToothSmith to the rescue!

donteatthat

The further back you go, the more difficult the tooth to root treat.
I work in a specialist private dental practice, and I do not think there are many cases I have seen where NHS standard RCT has been good enough.
Our guy who does the root canal treatments does it with a microscope so he can see and fill all the insides of the roots. This won't be available on the NHS.
I would recommend yo go down the private route if you want to save this tooth.

Toothsmith

I would basically agree with the above.

Just adding that nowadays with the new NHS contract, dentists generally try to get out of doing as much of the more advanced expensive stuff as they possibly can.

It could well have been that in the days of the old NHS contract, when he would have been paid a seperate fee for this treatment, he might have been more willing to have a go at it.

As donteatthat said though, if saving the tooth is more important to you than the price - go for the specialist every time.

There have been a couple of cases though, where PCTs have forced NHS dentists who have referred a few too many root fillings to actually pay for the private referrals.

If you feel like stirring things, a word with your local PCT might be productive - unless it really is a very tricky root filling in which case the referral is perfectly justified.