Dental Costs

jozvaldo

Good Afternoon

I'm after some advice if possible please. I've just returned from the dentist as a tooth is causing real pain. I'm told it needs root canal and is a big tooth so will cause some pain/discomfort. Being a man my pain threshold is ridiculously low so I have been told that sedation is an option. However as this would be a private referral it is around £75 for the initial consultation and £1000 for the work to be done including sedation.

For me this is well out of my budget - can anybody advise of any other options / lower price availability as I really don't want an extraction?

Thanks

brook2jack

Sedation is available on the NHS but not for root treatment, it is for simple fillings or extractions.

Root treatment is not painful, it is just time consuming . Your options are , if you want to keep the tooth, have the root treatment on the NHS or pay for private treatment.

private root treatment on a molar is £400 to £600 and sedation starts at around £150 a session so you are unlikely to get a cheaper quote. You cannot have private sedation and NHS root treatment, this sort of mixing is not allowed.

Toothsmith

As Brook said - Root treatment shouldn't be painful whilst having it done, providing the local anaesthetic has worked properly, and if it doesn't, then there should be things that can be done to deal with that too.

What they might have been warning you about was discomfort afterwards, when anaesthetic wears off - which can happen - but simple pain killers should easily control that too.

Is the £1000 the root filling AND a crown afterwards? It does seem a bit 'top end' for root treatment & sedation - but quite reasonable if a crown is included too.

brook2jack

Actually ts , if we are looking at a private endo we are looking at 2 lots of one hour appointments , at least , so two lots of sedationist fees circa £150 a time plus private molar endo fee £400 to £600 so not that high end.

jozvaldo

Thanks for your reply - it is literally Root Canal and Sedation.

I'm just a bit wary as last time I had root canal (on a very small tooth) the pain was awful once it had worn off.........however if this is the going rate price rise I may just have to man up and get on without the sedation :-D

Undervalued

jozvaldo wrote: »

Thanks for your reply - it is literally Root Canal and Sedation.

I'm just a bit wary as last time I had root canal (on a very small tooth) the pain was awful once it had worn off.........however if this is the going rate price rise I may just have to man up and get on without the sedation :-D

I am not a dentist but how is sedation going to help with that issue? They are not, presumably, going to keep you sedated for the rest of the day!

Toothsmith

brook2jack wrote: »

Actually ts , if we are looking at a private endo we are looking at 2 lots of one hour appointments , at least , so two lots of sedationist fees circa £150 a time plus private molar endo fee £400 to £600 so not that high end.

Fair point. The place I refer to generally tries to do it in one visit if sedation is involved - plus we're 'up north' so generally a bit cheaper due to reasonable living costs

Saffythecat

I had molar root canal done last year. It was boring, and long, but honestly not at all painful. Afterwards my jaw was a bit sore with keeping my mouth open for so long, and the metal frame thing had cut into my gum, but the tooth itself was fine. The worst bit was by far the injection in the roof of my mouth which was horrid - I had never had that before and wouldn’t rush to have it again. I am not great with needles in general though.

Mine was done over two 90 minute appointments, no sedation, and cost about £800 with a specialist. I had it crowned by my own (NHS) dentist once I had been back to have further x-rays to make sure all was well.

(I actually had to borrow money from my mum to pay for it.)