Should I expect to pay the dentist?

[FredAstairesChair]

Went for a filling after dentists reopened again not long after last lockdown.
They hurt me doing the filling (their slogan is that they're pain free!) And had to stop and administer more anaesthetic, unsure if relevant.

After the allotted length of time it takes for dental work like fillings to settle, I noticed it still hurt me to chew with this tooth (it didnt before they filled it).
I rang them and made an appointment to have it sorted. Will they want me to pay? Should I? Obviously it has been a long time but it is lockdown that has prevented me from going back until now.

Yabu--theyll expect you to pay,and you should
Yanbu-- they hurt you and fecked it up and they should sort it

I think if your tooth still hurt after the first filling, my opinion is that they shouldn't charge you for the appointment to rectify it.

Re anaesthetic- I had a filling and they said if it hurt, to raise my hand and they'd give me more anaesthetic - didnt need to, but assume they go with as little as possible for pain threshold?

Normally mine wouldn't charge within a certain timescale as it would be considered part of the same course of treatment. Six months, I think. But obviously Covid has thrown anything like that into disarray.

If it's NHS, then no, you won't have to pay.

I think it might be quicker to phone then and ask rather than reply on a bunch of randoms guessing.

The having to administer more anaesthetic isn’t particularly relevant, some people are just more resistant than others.

They shouldn’t expect you to pay if the treatment didn’t adequately correct the problem or exacerbated it. If you haven’t notified them at any point since the original visit it will be more difficult for you to claim it’s been ongoing ever since rather than a wholly new problem. As previous poster says, phone and ask for their policy.

Not NHS. The anaesthetic thing, they advertise as pain free. I couldnt have called them today as was working and just wondered if others would expect to in any similar circumstance.

It depends on the practise, I'd imagine.

If it's NHS it's a continuation of the initial treatment so no, no further charges. I've had this twice.

I wouldn't expect to pay to address the jagged filling in this situation, OP.

Depends how long ago you had the initial treatment done and if it was a permanent filling or done temp as an emergency appointment (likely at the start of lockdown) But if you have pain on biting it is likely that the decay in the tooth is really deep and therefore affected the nerve; meaning you might unfortunately be looking at removal of the tooth or root canal treatment if possible.

It depends but if its pain most likely the tooth has died, that's a consequence of deep decay and therefore you would need to pay for further treatment. If the filling needs adjustment then I wouldn't charge

That would fit with pain during filling as you may have had a "hot pulp' where the tooth is extra sensitive and needs more LA. But everyone's different and its reasonably common to need a top up of LA

They use the drill not a needle anaesthetic. I doubt it is such a deep decay, I had no pain and had no idea i needed a filling, they said it was very superficial and just precautionary. Thanks for all the replies.

I would expect to pay.
Medicine is an inexact science. With something like anaesthetic different people react differently. With a general, for example, my ds is still 75% asleep and very dopey after a mild one while children younger and smaller than him, who went in 2 hours after him are up to dashing round the room.

Our dentist has been open through the last lockdown, so I'd have expected you to have gone back or at least phoned them and asked, as leaving it may mean that there's more to do.

And again with the filling, it depends on what the cause of the more pain is. If it's something they've caused or missed the first time, they might not charge you, but if it's something further then I would. I've certainly had where they've said "we'll try A as the milder treatment, but if it doesn't work then we may need to do B."