I don't know what hurt the most, having the tooth pulled or paying £165 for the privilege :-(
The whole business took less than 10 minutes
Last edited by: Robin O'Reliant on Tue 20 Feb 24 at 21:42
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I'm not enamoured with dentists any more. NHS one told me that my bridge was loose, but I needed to go private (not surprisingly at the same place).
Replacement bridge would have been something like £3200. We ended up settling on a £1600 denture. He took out the old one then the teeth it was attached to. One was obv loose and came out easily. The other was hard work for him, and with hindsight I should have stopped him trying.
Took ages and many visits, and left me fairly toothless on the upper left, very visible. Eventually I got it and within days of using it I'd developed an extremely sore tooth - I was away for an extended holiday at the time so made an appt for as soon as I got back. That was with the NHS dentist.
She said the tooth he'd anchored the denture to (a big one at the back) was maybe loose but as it was behind the teeth which the NHS cover I needed to see a private dentist. At a different place but same company. A few £00s later he confirmed the tooth was loose and shouldn't have had a denture attached. More money if I wanted it out. It didn't feel especially loose and as I'm now somewhat short of teeth I thought I'd wait for nature to take it's course with it.
Without really thinking to much I just went back to the private dentist and asked for a refund. He pretty much immediately refunded me his cost and a part of the other cost. I suspect I could have gone for a negligence compo if I'd thought about it.
I ended up with an NHS denture, about £400 IIRC. Not really sure why I was not told about that in the first place...The whole episode was over a year long.
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>>I ended up with an NHS denture, about £400 IIRC.
Wait til GP goes the same way.
At least we are currently contractually forbidden from charging our NHS patients for private work.
The whole dentist system stinks of conflicts of interest.
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I had a 4 toof bridge fitted under the NHS some 40 years ago due to a crook taking out 2 teeth when I was about 12 years Jung.
One of the anchor teeth failed some years ago, but the bridge was still 'hanging on' in there.
Eventually, said bridge came completely orf and I had it refitted to the single anchor toof twice.
I even bought some 'proper' cement (glass iomomer) and did it myself a couple of times.
I do have the Monet to have a new bridge fitted privately, but as I've paid into the NHS service? for 50 years, and the original bridge was done under the NHS, I feel the NHS should sort it out.
I've had an idea (I have lots of those) to buy some Fixodent and stick the thing in in the morning and take it out at night, like Teddy does with his false teeth.
:o}
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Did that bridge include the anchor teeth Dog?
I have a 4 tooth gap due to an accident and they are saying it will need implants and bridge (low cost option or all implants - high cost option.
Would much rather have a bridge at £1k than 4 implants at £8 to £10k!
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>>Did that bridge include the anchor teeth Dog?
Nay zippo, I had a 2 tooth gap, dentist in Peckham sowf lunden (good dentist) ground down 2 adjacent teeth to fit a 4 tooth bridge.
Another type of bridge is what's known as a Maryland bridge, which adheres to the adjacent teeth using a metal framework and ceramic wings.
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That's peanuts. An implant will cost you around £2.000 plus per tooth. My wife is having four.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Tue 20 Feb 24 at 22:05
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Can't you get a "Buy one get Three Free!" in Turkey? ;-)
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>>An implant...
Yes. They are letting me know if I need two or three. I had other plans for that money :-(
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>>Pulled tooth...
My dentist does NHS and private. I'm NHS.
I had a bad tooth and saw the dentist on Monday last week. Dentist said tooth needs removal.
He said the cost will be £70.70 and he can do it if I make another appointment for it, or the dental surgeon can do it and it wouldn't hurt as much.
I opted for the dental surgeon and got a call from them on Thursday last week offering me an appointment at a different practice on SUNDAY - i.e. 2 days ago.
It took quite a bit longer than 10 minutes because there were lots of fragments that needed removing. Was painless there but hurt like hell yesterday.
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All this talk of bridgework and implants, what's wrong with good old dentures. I've had mine for sixty years and reckon I'm on the fourth set. The thought of having something screwed into my jawbone terrifies me.
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I'm with Tubby Tom. I've had dentures for decades. I don't even need the Fixodent now I'm still on the first set, they were free on the NHS and fit perfectly.
Take 'em out and clean them with the nail brush and now and again leave them in bleach overnight. Simples.
In fact, for a couple of years I haven't worn the bottom set at all. I can manage perfectly well and nobody can see as I've never been able to get my bottom lip low enough. Some people must have real big mouths ! I'm not trying to pull any trim now, either !
A bonus is a half decent Cosmo Smallpiece impersonation too !
Ted
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I hope you’ve been paying close attention to the ‘Serendipity & the soup maker’ post ?
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>> I don't know what hurt the most, having the tooth pulled or paying £165 for the privilege :-(
Was the appointment at tooth hurty?
Seriously though, last November I had to have specialist extraction at a dentist in Basingstoke, costing me £350.
My current dentist has been closed since last March, following a building move and change of ownership. It was supposed have been up and running by April, but the CQC (Care Quality Commission) made a cock up and struck them off the register because they misread the letter from the previous dentist saying he was retiring and someone else was taking over the business. They read it as the business was closing for good.
Anyway, nearly a year later, customers are still getting false promises of them reopening "soon". The CQC keep saying that they're not up to scratch to reopen yet.
I had a filling fall out last August, and my dentist had made arrangements with another local dentist to provide emergency cover and to do the bare minimum as they were hoping to open again to treat patients themselves.
The other dentist put in a temp filling, which fell out in September. He put another one in, and then in October part of the tooth broke off, which meant he couldn't put another filling in. There was so little of the tooth left, so he referred me to the specialist dentist in Basingstoke.
Annoyingly I pay into a dental plan, which among other things entitles me to 2 free check ups and 2 free hygienist treatments yearly. I've not had a check up or hygienist treatment since September 2022.
So I'm now arguing with my dentist that he has been taking money from myself and other customers, but failing to deliver a service.
This could have been avoided, or at least cost less, if I'd been having regular check ups. The tooth in question was already on the previous dentist's watch list.
I've hopefully managed to claim back £85 for the specialist extraction from the dental plan emergency medical cover insurance, (waiting for the claim to be processed). This however goes little way into costing £350 for the extraction, and
over £200 for the dental plan subscription.
Does anyone know if I can pursue my dentist for paying for a service he's not been providing?
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>> Does anyone know if I can pursue my dentist for paying for a service he's
>> not been providing?
Would you want to go to a dentist you've just sued?
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>> Would you want to go to a dentist you've just sued?
The person I'm in discussion with is the owner of the business, not the dentist.
I am however contemplating changing my dentist. Finding rocking horse poo would be easier though.
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I have a completely irrational fear of going to the dentist, and have avoided going for knocking on 20 years.
October last year I lost a piece of a tooth on something or other - I reluctantly started the search for a dentist. I must've struck lucky, as I found an NHS dentist who was taking on new patients. It's an experience going - quite different to the private dentist our children go to (impossible to find an NHS dentist round here that's taking on children).
Fast forward to now, the tooth has been filled twice as the first effort fell out. I've got a check up booked in May and am already dreading it. Since a bad cold last week, though, I've got toothache in my upper jaw. I'm hoping it's cold related, not tooth.
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Friends of mine, who use the NHS in the uk, have more complicated procedures, which still aren’t cheap on the NHS, done privately when on holiday in Spain.
They tell me the service is second to none and good value for money
I also know someone who, last year, had 2 trips to Turkey for major dental work. Now that is something I’d avoid but he’s delighted with the result.
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>> I also know someone who, last year, had 2 trips to Turkey for major dental
>> work. Now that is something I’d avoid but he’s delighted with the result.
Bet he can’t stop smiling? As in literally…
;-)
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I had one implant done at my excellent U.K. surgery about 18 months ago. On the basis of that experience I wouldn’t run the risks of having major, multi-tooth work done abroad. The pre work for one tooth was quite lengthy including being fitted with a temporary cap for some time while the metal peg bedded in. That cap worked a little loose after a few days and I nipped in for it to be tightened. No problem when it’s five minutes down the road.
After the final fitting I had a full follow-up and check. All good. He checked it all again yesterday as part of my routine private check up. This included the hygienist checking the cleaning and giving me a practical demo on future cleaning. The dentist will recheck it each year. All this is covered by my initial (high) cost.
I suspect some of the aftercare is a bit of overkill to justify the implant cost. However given the care and number of visits needed for one tooth in U.K. I would be reluctant to take the risk of going abroad for a few days then being back in U.K. with a mouthful of new dental work. No doubt there are many satisfied customers who have gone abroad but I prefer the security of my U.K. dentist who has full U.K. specialist implant qualifications and always has same day emergency appointments if needed.
I know I am lucky to be able to afford it.
The scandal of general NHS dentistry is a wider issue which, alas, won’t be resolved in my lifetime
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>>Implant...
May I be cheeky and ask how much you paid MA?
I am being quoted at about £2,500 a pop.
Last edited by: zippy on Fri 23 Feb 24 at 11:16
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zippy I can’t remember exactly but it was around £2.3 - £2.5k. We are lucky to have a very good up to date practice which we’ve used for over 30 years so there was no need to shop around.
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May I be the first to spot the (possibly inadvertent) Turkish Delight pun in LLs post? :-)
Last edited by: smokie on Fri 23 Feb 24 at 10:09
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Checked the price of implants and bridges at my dentist:
Implants = £2290
Bridge work = from £594
www.noahsarkdental.co.uk/fees/
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Ouch! - smokie
