_____________

[Deleted User]

_____________

Undervalued

ciaccino wrote: »

I never had to use a dentist in the last 25 years until early last year, when I had a massive pain at one molar.


I went to a first NHS dentist and she was rubbish and a non-starter. Let's say she had massive communication problems, wasn't sure about what treatment was best, and didn't even turn up on time.


So, sacked the first dentist, I went to the first practice that could assist me within reasonable time. I was assigned to a young dentist. He seemed the best thing since sliced bread: well spoken, confident, reassuring. He performed a painless root canal and all seemed alright for a couple of months. Then the molar started giving me trouble again, and another molar started becoming troublesome.


He performed some X rays and couldn't spot any problems and just said this could have been a normal complication after the root canal. After many visits, only recently he spotted a crack in on the molars and an infection at the root canal. He gave me some antibiotics that helped only for a couple of weeks and then pain again.


So far, he is still not sure what to do next. One day he says it's best to do a root canal, the other day he says a crown would sort the problem, yet another day he says it's best to leave it like that.


It's obvious that at this point I lost trust in this dentist, but what should I do next? All other dental practices in a 10 mile radius have even worse reviews than this one.


I could go to a private dentist and spend more, but I've been told they're not necessarily better than the NHS ones.


Or I could take two weeks off and go to Hungary in one of these dental clinics, but I have absolutely no idea if they can be trusted.


Have you found yourselves in a similar situation, and what would you do?

Yes I have, sadly, and I don't have a clear answer. For a while I though I had found a good, relatively young and enthusiastic NHS dentist but sadly he has moved away for "family reasons".

The practice has been a shambles since to the point I have thought about following the chap who has moved. However it is about an hour away and not a particularly easy journey.

There has just been a CQC inspection at the practice, so another disgruntled patient tells me. Should make interesting reading....

However the professionals on here will tell you it is all the fault of the system and those dentist who work in the NHS are either saints or fools.

brook2jack

Cracks in teeth are notoriously difficult to diagnose and treat. They often cannot be seen on X ray or in the mouth and often it is educated guess work how extensive they are.
Dentists can easily get caught out by the extent of a crack and the size of the crack will determine the treatment.
Any dentist will often change their mind about how best to deal with a cracked tooth because often it is not straight forward . If a tooth is root filled it is even more difficult because a crack is often catastrophic although often there is little to see and treatment is made on balance of probabilities.
The best treatment is always from a dentist that you have built a relationship up with, who knows you and your mouth. Constantly changing dentists, going abroad, or only going when you have problems is no way to maintain good long-term dental health.

TheGardener

Our family gave up on a very mediocre local dentist who takes both private and NHS patients. We went to a private only dentist on personal recommendation of friends. We have been delighted with the quality of service and although more expensive - the fact they manage to fix things properly the first time (rather than multiple band 1&2 visits) means it has not been so expensive as we thought.

A friend went to Romania for dental work. However, 2 years later most of it failed. She went to the same private dentist as us for repairs and he told her that although the technical quality of the work she had had done was excellent, unfortunately the quality of the materials the Romanian dentist had used were very poor - hence the failure.

Ask around for some local recommendations for private dentists.