to think that £1000 is a lot of money for a root canal and crown?

[LadySybilPussPolham]

DH went to the dentist today with severe toothache. They patched him up but said the root canal should be done soon as he has an abcess on the way. We are both at the cost but as neither of us has needed anything like this before have no idea if it's reasonable. Any root canal veterans out there?

I take it you don't have an NHS dentist?

I was quoted £600 for a crown. Any chance of getting in with an NHS dentist?

Which tooth is it?

Right so bearing in mind I live in Dublin (not really fames for being reasonable in any shape or form) I had root canal done on a back molar 7 years ago and it set me back ?800 - around ?670 (no crown though as it was out of my price range)

Dh has a tooth done last year - again no crown - and it cost him ?1,000 - that's about £870

I got a quote for a crown last year and it was ?700 - slightly under £600

So in a nutshell imo I think 1,000 is about what it cost for a root canal and crown (whether I think it's OK to cost that is another matter!)

It was a private dentist but will definitely be looking for an NHS one tomorrow!

I had a root canal job done last year. It cost a total of £45.60 at my NHS dentist. One tooth, a bit of drilling to clear muck out, removal of nerve and refilling. Well, my dentist called it a root canal job, anyway. The receipt says that I paid for examination & advice and endodontics.

I had a root canal and crown done at a very expensive, specialist, referal only dental practice, state of the art (very expensive for Scotland anyway) as my teeth are unusually brittle/strange and need very carefully treatment - cost to be treated by the senior partner was about £600 all in for that tooth, which is fabulous quality reproduction tooth (they use the same materials as for dental implants). I've had dental implants too on a couple of teeth which completely shattered, by the same specialist dentist - cost, about £1200 per too including all pre and post implant care.

I suggest your DH shop around.

Ladysybil, like as not, if you find an NHS dentist, they will tell you the tooth CAN't be saved, and/or it needs to be taken out because of infection, which will almost certainly not be true.

We got a higher quote than that for dp,I got on the phone the next day and got it done on the NHS-they did a good job too!

You can get a list taking on NHS from somewhere,I searched for reviews and got him in with the sister branch of my own after some begging.

Well at least if you've been told already that its saveable then an NHS dentist shouldn't be able to say otherwise.

oldmum not true ime - dentists don't like to take teeth out these days unnecessarily. In fact ime it's private dentists which insist on work being done when NHS dentists are more likely to leave it or patch it up. I was quoted £1,200 for 2 crowns 3 years ago privately, then the next week managed to get into an NHS dentist and all I needed was a big filling which was £140.

Valium, the one I go to, takes referrals (you can't just go to them) from NHS and private dentists for complex work and very specialist treatments, so, necessaries work.

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1167707/Number-tooth-extractions-soars-30-years.html

Sadly, dentists ARE taking teeth out. It's a dailyfail link, but the figures are take from an NHS report (which I could link to for some reason). New contract, incentive to pull rather than treat, but they have to tell you the too can't be repaired - otherwise, they would have to repair it!

My DH broke a bit off a back tooth 18 months ago, NHS dentist said, sorry, not worth saving, infection, could not be crowned etc. DH said, I'm not having it pulled, got it root treated and filled by the same dentist for about £50. No bother from it since.

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1167707/Number-tooth-extractions-soars-30-years.html

We were told taking it out was an option privately.The NHS said we had to try and save it as it was an important one.

I had a tooth out last week. I have a phobia of dentists, and a bad experience of root canal work in the past. Spent a fortune and endured a lot of pain to have it done, only for the tooth to have to come out a few months later anyway..

This time I didnt bother with the faffing about. Tooth out... £140 rather than £350 for root canal and then god knows what else for a crown too..

NHS tend to save teeth. I wanted my root filled teeth removed because they were poisoning me with constant infections. Had to go private to get the damned things out.

viva that may be true but if the original dentist is a specialist or a dentist with special interest, the NHS dentist might not be & therefore may not have the training, equipment or experience to be able to do it.

Dentists don't like taking teeth out unless necessary because even if the patient asks for it AND signs a consent form, if they then change their mind the dentist will behung out to dry. More suing of dentists happens in the UK than anywhere else in the world. As a result we are risk averse and expensive because our insurance is very high.

Grumpy, can I ask you, I went for a check up a few weeks ago and dentist did that scaling thing at the back of my front teeth. When I got to the reception to pay I realised I was missing a quarter of one of my front teeth, it was a complete top quarter gone.

Now about 15 years ago I had a very slight chip, hardly noticeable on the tooth but I could feel it so my old dentist put a bit of White filling on the top and filed it down. So current dentist blamed that. But the bit that he snapped off was 100x bigger. Could the original chip have weakened the tooth to cause that? I've never had any problems with it and current dentist implied it was a coincidence that it snapped off when he was polishing, scaling my teeth.

I'm not looking to blame or sue. At the end of the day he fixed it for me free of charge. I'm just curious. And it did smell of bullshit slightly, he looked quite worried.

I had one tooth removed by a private dentist. Managed to get an nhs dentist and I thought the might have to remove another of my teeth, but they patched it up and it's doing ok so far!

But £1000 is a LOT of money

Scaling can dislodge fillings, a couple of times our hygienist has poked her head round the door to ask me to repair something. HOWEVER, if something is "sound" it shouldn't be dislodged so it's possible it was on the way out anyway. I would say that 15yrs is a good lifespan for a white filling done 15 yrs ago. White fillings have advanced a lot since then.
Sometimes when people chip teeth, we can see lots of crazing throughout the tooth, it all depends on the mechanism of the trauma.

more dentists are sued in the UK than in the US? Really?
Although I wish I'd sued the women who did 2 inneccassary root canals, badly, with the ensuiung 20 years of infections, ill health and £££££££'s!
The 3 root filled teeth are now gone so more £££££££ on a partial denture.

not black and white then in terms of NHS/private it would seem... thanks all of you for your input - it's very much appreciated. Will be ringing round tomorrow in a far more enlightened position than a few hours ago!

Yes, more than in the US. PArt of why I hate my job & why there aren't enough NHS dentists. The pay & conditions don't make the stress worth while IMHO. But then we all earn over £100k and drive maseratis or something!

Lady glad you have found some of the info useful.

oldmum that's really interesting, I used to work for a dentist and she said she was hard pushed to think of a dentist who would pull teeth rather than fill them. She was saying that teeth do sometimes need to be pulled and it wasn't always a good idea to patch them up and fill them. She said if she wanted one of her own teeth pulled she could only think of one dentist that would willingly do it.

Would be close to £1k at the private dentist I work for too once you add in examination etc