Child fillings £320?

[wejammin]

Hello, just after some feedback because I'm doubting myself/not sure what to do.

DC3 is 5. I've been taking him to the dentist regularly since he was 1. His usual dentist has moved away so we went to a new one last week.

I knew he would need some work on his top front 4 teeth. The last dentist was using a flouride paste on them to try and stop the cavities but that doesn't seem to have worked. From the front they look ok but at the back there are 4 little brown circles.

New dentist says he will need all 4 filled. He has referred us to the in-house paediatric dentist so they can do gas and air sedation for him.

I've spoken to the patient liaison lady who has quoted £320 per tooth, plus consultation fee plus anaesthetic. Total cost £1621.

In comparison DC1 had a molar filled there for £80. She said it's so much more due to his age/complexity/being front teeth.

I've tried to get comparative quotes but understandably other practices won't quote without seeing him and I don't want to drag a 5 year old around loads of dentists.

There's no NHS dentist spaces near me.

So is this just the going private rate and he's getting fillings for Christmas, or am I being taken for a ride?

I'm in NW England for context.

That seems on the pricey side. I pay £175 per filling (as an adult) privately. This is with local though. Has she priced it up with general anaesthetic as that does cost a lot more.

And I've had one on my front tooth, I wasn't charged any differently for that

It's for gas and air not full general. The anaesthetic is charged separately to the filling cost of £320.

On top of the £320 per filling?! Wow that really is a lot! I would get a second opinion if I was you.

Are these his adult or baby teeth ?

If it's his adult you have no choice.
If it's his baby don't bother. They'll fall out soon enough.

They're his baby teeth. Both his siblings didn't lose baby teeth until nearly 7 and he's only just turned 5. Seems a long time to leave a cavity?

Is he in pain? If not I'd leave well alone or i'd want a second opinion before I put a small child through that amount of work when the teeth are going to drop out soon enough. I have lifelong dentist phobia from going at that kind of age and being forced into a chair with mask over my face😱if necessary I'd want referring to the local NHS hospital for that level of work so he could have a general anaesthetic.

He's not in any pain and I check every night when I brush them. They've not got any worse in over a year.
Would the dental hospital take a referral from private dentist if it's just for fillings? I thought it had to be complex.

we got a referal to the Community Dental service from our Private dentist for my son, because he was too anxious to have work done without sedation.
They literally just shoved some hardening paste in, not unlike you can buy in Boots because they said at that age it was all they really needed to keep the teeth going until they fell out. No sedation or numbing at all.
It was quite a wait, but if it's not causing him any issues I would possibly pursue this anyway.
Eventually the filling came away and we have been told to use this special mousse to reduce the risk of the cavity growing as the tooth is loose and going to come out soon.

I would try and get a second opinion. As they are baby teeth I think you have a bit of time on your hands, if they were his adult teeth it would be different.

Do you know why he has these issues? Diet/genetics?

If he isn’t in pain and they’re his baby teeth I would leave them alone. You’ll pay nearly £2k for them to fall out anyway!

If he is in pain obviously that’s different.

@queenrollo do you have the name of the mousse?
I will ask the dentist if they could refer us.

@pecanpie101 if it was adult teeth I would put it on a credit card no question. I know DC2 will need braces in a couple of years and I'm expecting a hefty bill!

Not sure why he has them - never had a bottle or a dummy in his life, never had a fizzy drink. He is dairy allergic and has oat milk which has some sugars, but he only drinks it with a straw. He does have sweets and biscuits occasionally and is a grazer and likes fruit which I know is bad for teeth. DC2 is a sweet fanatic and her teeth are in perfect condition 🤷🏽‍♀️

@wejammin it is called GC Tooth Mousse.

I think I'd go back to the dentist you're with, explain it's a lot of money and ask for a second opinion as to whether it really needs doing. If not, and he's not in pain I'd leave it for now. It does seem exceptionally pricey. Moving forward, is there an NHS dentist you can get him in with, as no one knows what's in front of them?

I know some parents don't look after their children's teeth, but I think it's just pot luck how many fillings you end up with, so don't kick yourself over it. I had loads throughout my childhood (was a fussy eater and lived literally on dry bread, cheese and salad and only drank water, so nothing too acidic and was brought up to clean teeth twice a day). DD eat more sweet stuff that I did, she's 22 now and has only had one filling in her life.

No way would I pay that. So long as their not in any pain.

They'll fall out soon anyway. Unless they could damage the teeth underneath but I don't think that's likely.

The pulp inside baby teeth is huge so usually once there’s a visible cavity, the tooth is at risk of an abscess. These can damage the permanent teeth, as well as being incredibly painful.

Not much more depressing on a Sunday OOH clinic than a 5yo in agony and parents with no sleep and very little you can treat because of an abscess on a child who’s not used to treatment.

OP, that is a LOT of money. I absolutely don’t advocate just leaving it, for a number of reasons. However I wouldn’t expect to pay that Much pet filling to see a cosmetic specialist. Could you contact the surgery and ask them for a breakdown of the cost? I can’t remember if community/hospital will accept referrals from private practice but I would expect them to. All sorts is referred in and you might make the cut so it’s worth asking. You could also ask for the teeth to be dressed so the decay doesn’t get worse, this won’t look great but might tide things over.

I'm retired now but until a few years ago I was one of the anaesthetists for our local community dental service. Our service definitely accepted referrals from private practice - well, there's barely any NHS dentists here so not much option! However, the service was overwhelmed with very long waiting lists and we did almost exclusively extractions on small children. With even children in significant pain having long delays because there were so many on the waiting list there just wasn't the capacity to do fillings apart from in exceptional circumstances. Even so, we sometimes used to get urgent cases transferred from adjacent counties because their waiting times for a GA were even worse than ours, and from talking to colleagues from different parts of the country at conferences etc it seemed that many areas faced similar problems.
So whilst I wouldn't want to put you off from asking for a referral you need to be aware that your local service may not be able to deliver what you need. There is no harm in asking of course and you may live somewhere where there is more capacity, but I just want to let you know that community dental services are very over stretched in many parts of the country, so you may need to consider other options unfortunately.

Thank you, I didn't know if the teeth under can be damaged by the baby teeth.

£320 is high. If you have the treatment plan you could ring some private practices and ask them to quote.

Where in north west? Genix in Morecambe are talking on NHS children

Google nhs dentist taking patients on
you just put your postcode in
just done mine, a quite few dentist names
i will be ringing all of them tomorrow

I know one on there is taking 60 patients on 6th Dec

worth a try

I've rung 15 different NHS dentists with no luck. Not near Morecambe sadly.

So I did manage to speak to the dentist who referred us to the paediatric specialist today and he was very understanding about the issue of the cost for baby teeth. He said if we go to the community dentist via referral they'll just pull them under a general 😞. We discussed silver diamine flouride as another option, or a watch and wait approach using high flouride toothpaste and tooth mousse to try and stop any further decay, and see when they look like they're ready to be wobbly. I'm going to have a think about it.

@wejammin those are feasible options but you must must must look at the diet.

this is a great resource for understanding. https://jamiethedentist.com/dental-caries-decay/stephan-curve/#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20Stephan%20Curve,how%20acidic%20an%20environment%20is%20.

Tooth mouse is marvellous but not suitable for a child with CMPA. If you're going to watch and wait (& from the information you've given that seems a reasonable choice) I'd continue with 3monthly dentist applied fluoride application.

That cost is crazy. My son had a filling on a baby molar and they didn't do the full drill and fill they just gave it a little scrape and put some putty on, no anaesthetic required. Not a mission would I pay £320 for that.