Has anyone had a filling recently?

[Ginagogo]

I’m having my first filling next week, and as it’s on the bottom molar, I’m reluctant to have amalgam as it will stick out like a sore thumb. I thought if you wanted white you had to pay private, but my friend went recently for one and they did a white one without her asking on her molar.

I appreciate I’m lucky to have recently got an nhs dentist too!

just wondering peoples experiences?

OP, you need to speak to your dentist. If you want a white filling, ask if it’s possible. If he says no, ask why not - and if it’s cost, maybe consider how much you’re prepared to pay for it. I have both white and amalgam fillings, but these days, I have a private dentist, so I can’t help you as far as what the NHS is prepared to do.

My dentist says that it depends where the tooth is. At the front white filling on NHS. At the back (not as visible) pay private fees for white filling or have amalgam on the NHS

I've had white NHS fillings but only on teeth near the front.

Yeah that’s what I thought too and presumed it would be amalgam at the back, now I’m just curious if it varys between different dentists. I’ll have to speak to mine and see what they offer

I got a white filling in the very back molar recently, but had to pay extra for it - it cost about £95 in total for the white one; I can’t remember what the amalgam one would have been, but maybe about £60 or so?

I think band 2 on the nhs is £70 odd pound so you must have paid private price for the white filling. Only getting 1 would be okay private as it’s not much more, but getting a few would be expensive!

I paid £120 around 3 years ago for a white filling (a big one) at the back, I’m down south which can make private dentistry more expensive than up north though. I had an NHS dentist who recommended I have it done privately because the amalgam one I’d had previously had failed and fallen out, twice. Their advice was that the nhs would only cover amalgam at the back because it wouldn’t be visible, but amalgam wasn’t suitable for this tooth if it were to keep falling out every 2-3 years. The white composite would have better success at bonding to the tooth. It did look amazing I was really pleased with it, it completely blended with my tooth and was a lot smoother feeling than the silver I’d been used to. I started getting fancy ideas about getting all my silver fillings replaced.

(I was back 2 days later having it removed, needing a root canal and a crown. Nothing to do with the lovely white filling, I think there had been a small infection she hadn’t spotted on the x ray before she filled the tooth, altogether that stupid single tooth cost me over 1k and 4 appointments in a mix of private and nhs treatment)

Also depends how big cavity is .