Paying twice over for dental treatment

plugh

I had a couple of root-canal treatments some years back. Now it turns out I have to have them redone by a specialist as they're too deep for my regular dentist to have fixed properly. That means I'll be paying double to get these teeth sorted out. Is there no guarantee for the quality dental work done previously and do I really have to pay for the same work to be done again?

brook2jack

On the NHS work is guaranteed for a year providing ,

Exactly the same work is replaced ie the same material

You were not advised that another treatment would be better eg a crown instead of a filling

It was not emergency treatment

It is the same dentist who does the work.

Privately different dentists will guarantee work for differing amounts of time .

However root treatment can be demanding treatment. Normal success rates are 80 to 90% in general dentists hands for straight forward treatment. However sometimes a specialist will be needed who has additional training and specialist equipment . Sometimes a root treatment will look fine but just won't settle. Any re root treatment will normally be a specialist job.

For this reason no one offers guarantees on root treatments because even the best executed can fail. To give you an idea of how difficult it may be to clean and fill all of a root canal have a look at this https://goo.gl/images/MbW8NL

No dental treatment lasts for ever and having had "some years" of use of these teeth after having had demanding treatment like root treatment it is difficult to see how specialist treatment could be claimed under guarantee.

Brett_J

Hi all.

This week I've had to go to the dentist turns out I need a root canal and then crown on the same tooth and as part of the same process I've had another tooth extracted and am having a denture in its place. The extraction was done 2 weeks ago and the gum is almost fully healed and now today he's started the crown treatment I have to go back in 2 days for fitment of the crown.

Today they asked me for payment and I paid.. they charged the band 3 cost £256 but to my horror the dentist has told me I will have to pay again another £256 when he fits the denture? He states it will take over 3 months for my mouth to fully heal before he can fit the denture this taking me outside of the 3 month treatment window? This isn't sitting right with me.. I'm almost healed already and he hasn't even done the crown. He claims he has to wait for my teeth to reposition after the extraction?

Is this right or is the dentist having me over? Thanks in advance.

Toothsmith

That does sound right.

It's not so much the socket 'healing over' as the change in the bone underneath - which does actually go on for about a year after the extraction. But the fastest change is in the first 3 - 6 months.

If a denture was made too soon, it simply wouldn't fit very well after a few months.

If the tooth lost is in a place that shows - then he might have made a temporary denture first, but then would have had to make another one a few months later when that didn't fit anymore.

Brett_J

Thanks Toothsmith !!!55357;!!!56846;