Because I am at my wit’s end with conflicting dentist advice and am in pain and don’t know what to do.
five years ago I had a filling in upper molar (number 7). 4 years ago it was hurting. My nhs dentist said it needed extracting and as I am nervous about extractions referred me to the nhs hospital. At this point there was nothing wrong with it on x-ray
soon after this I lost my nhs dentist as they went private
about 2 years ago I got another nhs dentist and they did some X-rays and still didn’t see anything wrong with it.
june 2024 I got in to a community nhs dental clinic who did an X-ray with a view to extraction, still couldn’t see anything wrong with it but found that a wisdom tooth needs extracting. The community clinic refused to do the extraction as I have a potential bleeding disorder.
nov 2024 I got my hospital appointment through and they didn’t have X-ray equipment and were confused about the need for my molar to be removed and said they’d write to my dentist for information but that they’d see me in Feb 25 to pull my wisdom tooth and maybe my molar.
i have never heard back from the hospital
went back to my dentist in dec 24 and had a new dentist at the practice who said it didn’t need extracting and that he’d take my old filling out and do a root canal and it would be fine, by now he could see something on an X-ray. Then he left the practice and my 3rd dentist at this practice did another X-ray, said the decay is extensive and she thinks it needs pulling. She says I could pay 1k privately for root canal at the same dental practice but not have root canal done on the nhs even though I’m an nhs patient. She said root canal might fail and I’d have wasted my money. She said one extraction would be fine and I wouldn’t need an implant.
another nhs dentist in town is taking on patients so I signed up for another opinion. He’s said my molar is urgently bad and also my molar number 6 has decay close to the nerve and probably also needs a root canal. Would have to be private, he won’t do it on the NHS. Said he refer me to another dentist at a different practice and I’d be looking at 2k per tooth. I asked might it fail and he said possibly but that everything has risks.
He said my only other option is extraction and then he says I’d need either implants or a bridge. He said implants would be 3k per tooth. He said a gap wouldn’t be good as I’d lose chewing ability. He said about removable dentures but that I’m young for dentures. Other option is a bridge but that would mean filing down healthy teeth to fit it?
so should I spend an awful lot of money which will be a massive chunk out of savings on something that might not work.? Or just go for extractions and implants? Or just extractions and have a gap. One dentist said a gap would be fine and the other said not. Is going to Turkey going to save me money? Poland?