Private dentist should I get a refund?

Kelrosen

Hello first time posting on here, don't know much on rights and such to refunds , but my sister goes to a private dentist as she is having braces fitting, we have saved for years to get this done for her, she is currently having work the needs doing before the braces can be fitted , she has had a number of fillings and one of her teeth that was filled 3 weeks ago we are now being told needs removing ,as it beyond being fixed, but my question is the before work started it was set out what her plan was and she had a long extensive check and X-rays , we paid £300 for the filling and now are expected to pay £260 for it being removed, I dont know where I stand on being due a refund or at least not having to pay for the tooth to be removed? I have work so hard to save and the they like £300 is just spare change

Kelrosen

Sorry made no sense on this bit, her plan never stated this was to be removed just filled xx

System

£300 for a filling does sound like an awful lot of money!

Kelrosen

That it is, but is about average for a large filling in this area X

brook2jack

The first thing I would say is no one who needs a lot of fillings , and ones that are so large they are unsalvagable should be even considering braces until their diet has changed and decay completely stopped. Otherwise over the period of braces they will be getting even more fillings and loosing more teeth. Indeed most orthodontists will refuse to do treatment until decay is under control and diet changed.

It is very difficult to tell from x rays precisely how deep the decay has gone . You can often only tell when drilling the tooth.

Sometimes with very deep decay that goes close to the nerve there is a high chance that the decay will cause the nerve to die off and cause an abscess if not immediately then at some point in the future. Sometimes with a deep filling the tooth will settle down , sometimes it will start to cause problems and it has to be decided whether to take the tooth out or root fill and crown it.

The orthodontist may decide it would be better to take the tooth out before braces, rather than risk the tooth dying off during treatment or afterwards. It is easier to close any spaces if the tooth needs removing , and teeth that need root treatment and crowns are not the best candidates for moving with a brace.

£280 is on the very high scale for a straight forward extraction that doesn't need sedation or a surgical approach. £300 is also very high end fee for a filling that doesn't involve laboratory work.

It is not the dentists fault the tooth can't be saved , but that being said many dentists would at give some discount for the extraction for good will.

The most important thing is your sister needs to change her diet rapidly or a lot of money will be spent to little effect.

Kelrosen

Many thanks for your reply, will give more information on this, our dentist is the orthodoist fitting the braces,she has had to have five fillings , as the ones done by her previous dentist are unsatisfactory , these were done in the first place to her diet being poor when she was younger, she has corrected this and has had regular visits to a hygienist , to improve oral health, the tooth in question was previously root cannaled by her old dentist and her now dentist had doubts about the standard of it at first as it appeared to not be filled right down and had inflammation but when in the planning the treatment process just suggested it needed filling, he then sent her for a X-ray at the hospital as she had a tooth on her pallet , after this he mentioned the tooth he had filled needed to come out