AIBU re dentist suddenly adding on £240 to cost of teeth?

[Thump]

I might be BU, but it's a lot of money on top of a lot of money, so I was really deflated yesterday.
I'll explain.
I went to the dentist a week ago re cosmetic dentistry as my teeth (top 6 teeth at the front) are badly decayed and discoloured - also gums are receding so the newly exposed pieces of tooth are brown.
So the dentist explained various options.

1. Home bleaching kit - £299 (due to lifestyle and insomnia I can't see myself being able to sleep with gum shield thing on and also results take 6 weeks)
2. In-house 'Zoom' bleaching - £399 instant results with home treatment thing given to take home for maintenance.
3. Air brush cleaning - £99

After either of these, I would need composite fillings which she explained and this is the important part involved taking a mould of the tooth and then working up the new shape of the tooth. Cost: £299 per tooth.
Ideally I would need 6 done, but I could stretch to having 4 done using finance on credit card.

So, I opted for option 3, which I had done yesterday. The result was nada - zero noticeable whitening.
So I then discussed options 1 & 2 further and decided I'd have to go for the inhouse treatment, as to get the new fillings matched to the current colour of my teeth would mean I'd have a mouthful of faintly yellow teeth. Hence needing to bleach first in order to then get the fillings matched to hopefully whiter teeth.

All good (though bloody £400 more than I had expected).

So I said, I'd go for the bleaching and the 4 composite fillings - so £399 plus £299 x 4.

So dentist proceeded to take a mould of my teeth - top and bottom for some reason which needed to be sent to a lab, to form the basis of the moulds for the fillings - now this is where my AIBU comes in - I presumed this mould process was included in the £299 per tooth.

Go down to pay, get invoice of £299 per tooth. Then receptionist says, the dentist wants £240 for the mould. I asked was that part of the £299 per tooth and she said No - it's in ADDITION to the £299 per tooth.

Now - I could stretch myself to the very ends of my credit ability by paying this as well, but AIBU in thinking this was a very underhand way of explaining costs? Have I ANY remote leg to stand on in terms of saying that the £240 was a figure they arbitrarily pulled out of their arses and to try to push for that cost to be waived?

As it is, given the lack of result from the cleaning, I was already going to have to spend an extra £400 on the bleaching and for them then to come up with a further £240 is just adding insult to injury?

For full disclosure, I rang practice manager and he said that it depends on the work that needs to be done by the dentist and it could be 'bespoke' work. I was less than polite (he in fact told me to not be rude ) and told him that everyone's teeth are going to be bespoke and this was a bespoke cost added on for no good reason.

Who IBU? Me? Cos I'm skint? Or dentist for adding on costs and telling me she had told me about this extra cost - which she UNEQUIVOCALLY HAD NOT!

Sorry for the way too long post about £240. It's just it's a lot of money to add on when I'm already stretching myself to the max....

Costed not hosted.

Our dentist charges £500 for zoom but I don’t know their prices for the other work you’re having done. Our dentist is expensive though so that’s not to say yours is reasonable at £399.

It is bad practice not to give you a written quote.

My fist dentist was NHS and my registered dentist. I went to a second opinion with a private dentist but did not tell them costs/advice of first dentist.

Private dentist recommendations were half the price of my nhs dentist.

Ok, have requested a quotation from that dental services abroad link, but don't have an xray of the teeth to provide them with. As it's cosmetic, it's probably not as necessary.

Ok, well at least they're not ripping me off with the Zoom price then.

To be honest, I don't know what a composite filling is, or the difference between that and a crown or a veneer..

@Thump I can’t comment on the cost as I’ve not had cosmetic work (yet!) but if you don’t know the difference between these things, you really need to find out-even via google, as you can easily be taken advantage of again. Although a dentist may do nhs work as well as private, they are businesses.
Saying that I think it was mighty shady what they’ve done about the moulds-if they have to be done in order to get the treatment, it should form part of the price

My DP had composite filling it was £140 - 5* dentist and he highly rates the dentist

@woodwhitecand - Your DP's dentist doesn't happen to be in London? hopeful

Practice manager has now sent me through a NEW quote with the extra £240 on it.

This was not on yesterday's quote!
Chancers.

I've been caught like that. Had quotation for a bridge but it turns out that was just for the dentist's work - the lab work is extra. He did eventually tell me that before I had the work done but by then I didn't want to go through all the palaver again so I just sucked it up.

I'm the same. It's the sunken costs/time element at this stage... Just so disappointed.

I genuinely wouldn't mind if I had it all in savings. As it is I only have £850 savings and the rest will need to be put on my credit card. - so we're talking putting £1000 on credit card and that leaves me with no savings to my name whatsoever.

On the other hand, I bear a striking resemblance to Shane McGowan currently, so that is holding me back looking for a job or generally getting on with life. I suffer badly from depression so am currently not working. My teeth don't help my confidence or depression, so there is that element to it too I suppose.

I don’t think they’ve handled it well at all. The idea of a quote is that you have all the information to hand to male a decision, not be given it afterwards. They should at least be speaking to you about a payment plan and apologising for the error.

In your shoes OP I think I would try and find another practice. Do you have a local Facebook page where you could ask for recommendations?

Send him copies of both (so you get them in one place within your communication) and ask him were it came from, at what point they deided to add it, was it an error to miss it the first time, what they intend to do given you had not budgetted for that extra cost and, because of their apparent error, it came as something of a surprise.

And yes, keep looking for other options, though the prices sound about right to me [sad}

I can't get send him a copy of yesterday's quote as like a fool I didn't take it with me!!!!

Will you not need the moulds to use for the upkeep bleaching treatment at home anyway though? So not just to make the composites?

No, the moulds are to fill the teeth in. Totally separate to the bleaching moulds.

The moulds they're taking are of the shape of the tooth currently. Apparently they work with that, and then build up fillings around it to shape them into 'proper' shaped teeth.
Maybe she was going the extra mile in not doing each tooth as an individual tooth but trying to work with the front teeth as they are to try to get some sort of semblance of normal teeth out of them.
It's just such a lot of money and to be spending now 260 (yes, an extra 20) plus 400 for the bleaching is more than I thought.
Just got to weigh up the benefits of getting them done to not getting them done I suppose.

I’ve had moulds taken several times for a bridge/crown/inlay and the cost was always included in the overall price - I’ve never seen it quoted separately. Like others, I’ve always had to sign to agree costs in advance. I think you have been poorly served.

my dentist quoted me verbally £2000 for an implant to replace a toot she removed. paid half at the first bit of work then went to pay the other half when it was all completed 3 months later to find an additional £60 on the bill, queried it with the receptionist who had a word with the dentist who agreed to 'let me off' that bit, I was cross as she quoted me a price then tried to get more without any discussion.

The moulds are for the lab to do a wax up- they effectively put them on a jig that resembles your jaw and build them up to the exact specification you want aesthetically.

This means you can see them before they do them but also it means they know everything with your bite stays correct. It’s time intensive and not done by the dentist, but the lab, so it does cost.

Obviously you don’t have to have it for most white fillings but most dentists won’t go ahead with such a big restructuring of your bite without it. The lab then makes a matrix which matches the new tooth shape and allows the dentist to completely replicate what you wanted.

The white fillings do have to be maintained and replaced about every 4-8 years (approximately and some do last longer) although they are less destructive then porcelain which lasts longer. So upsides and downsides to both. I’d register with another dentist who explains these things a bit better as it doesn’t seem like you know what you’re actually getting and the costs of upkeep or lifespan of the work and the trust in the relationship seems to have broken

@sammy867

Thank you. You mentioned lifespan which is something I'd be concerned about. What's your experience about veneers? I see you mention porcelain but I'm unsure about the distinction between veneers and composite fillings so apologies if I've misunderstood and you've already answered.

Same question as @Zilla1 for @sammy867 !

@Sammy867 Thank you - now that you've explained the added value of the wax work up of the teeth, I'm not so reticent about spending that extra amount. I just didn't know what it was and it had never been mentioned so to me it seemed like an additional sum they pulled out of thin air!