Are these dentist costs normal?

[Orangeoranges42]

As it says really, I think I probably know the answer.

NHS dentist has turned private so I’ve found a new dentist who has given me a plan of over £3,000!

Says urgent work needs doing, I know my teeth arnt great but how on earth do people afford this, it’s more than my car is worth.

roughly £238 for composite fillings (numerous)
initial root cancel treatment £300
follow up root canal treatment £399 premolars.

(2 sets of rootcanal might need more in future)

please be kind this is a lot of money for me, trying to be grateful things could be worse but bloody hell how do people afford life’s basics.

I didn’t expect to put my dentist bill on a credit card 😫

ABU - pay it and suck it up
YANBU - try another dentist

I sympathise. Dentist bills are a killer. Looking at the individual prices, they seem reasonable enough.

I would shop around for a second opinion.

Second opinion or go on a waiting list for nhs, took me 7 months to get a spot

I’m on a waiting list for a nhs spot too.

Private is a joke.

DH is a dentist and those costs sound correct. The unfortunate part is that there are multiple things required which of course add up. The follow up for the root canal actually sounds cheap...it usually requires a crown which can easily be £600 or higher. Maybe she's only charging you for a regular filling after the RC and you will need to get a crown further down the line. If she's doing a crown as well then that's a great deal.

The costs for the items mentioned seems perfectly normal, actually quite cheap as private dentists go. But I would be wondering how essential everything is, maybe you can prioritise some of the treatment to make payment more manageable.

Dentist is expensive AF. Several fillings for £230 sounds about right. But the £300+400 for root canals sounds quite expensive. Is that for 2 teeth?

I hate to say it OP but compared to my dentist, that's quite cheap. My plan totals £8000 😬 so I'm doing it slowly, treatment by treatment as I can afford it. The root canal treatment at my dentist alone is £700+. However my dentist is excellent and it's well worth the money.

That is cheap as chips for root canals, my dentist charges £750.

Sounds cheap to me as well sadly

That sounds like the rates. I am one of.many people who simply cannot afford luxuries such as dental health.

It depends how many roots as they're calculated per teeth. Xrays are also charged separately and can make quite a difference depending on what type of machine and what type of imaging is used. I paid around £500 for a pre-molar root canal over 20 years ago so those prices seem very reasonable for 2023.

Really? For one tooth? I just booked a check up and thank my (imo overpriced) dentist for having cheap with root canals 😅 I think mine was less than £500

My recent root canal including crown is £1100!! That seems really cheap.

Obviously for one tooth. . I wouldn’t have said it was £750 and failed to mention that was for five teeth. 😂

Ahh thank you all for replies.
Sounds like we’re all in this together and not sure there’s much we can do.

Per root canal it is £300 + £399 and then crown as a follow up later at some point.

It’s obviously a fair amount of money to pay but they are providing a service very few people are qualified to provide, and for most people a big dental bill is a one-off rather than regular cost.

I’m pretty sure most people spend more on haircuts over the years than on dental treatments.

And on that, I know people who drop £90 on a haircut every 6 weeks but begrudge paying £80 for a hygienist appointment every 6 months. There’s definitely a sense of entitlement around health-related services in this country.

Is that £238 per filling? I recently paid £75 for a small one and my next one will be £125.

For my last three root canal, it cost me the best part of £1k each. Not including the crown. That was with a specialist though as my dentist (Edinburgh) doesn't offer root canal even privately as they don't have the equipment needed to do it well. So your price of £699 sounds about right. I think a lot of NHS dentists would pull it rather than offer root canal.

I think if you find a dentist you like and who is good, stick with them. You can shop around, but you'll likely not save a great deal and could end up worse off. Good luck!

Low end of "not NHS" I'd say.

Did I miss mention of crowns?

Root canals and fillings usually need protective crowns.

And they're the expensive bit.

I’ve just had replacement of two root canals done. Cost £2,500. The NHS no longer offers this treatment at all.

Root canal + crown is usually about £1k.

It’s just madness that this has been allowed to happen. I feel so fortunate to have an nhs dentist at a good practice that also does a lot of private work.

If it makes you feel any better I'm in Canada and just had a root canal - cost GBP 1400
I'm still waiting for the bill for the crown that then went on top...
Insurance will cover about half 😥
Never met a poor dentist here, that's for sure

£600 for my root canal for one tooth. I'd never have it again, if it's at the back just let them whip it out!

I hope you get to keep him.

I too have had a good NHS dentist but he is now going private only.

He is so busy that he said he is going to have to stop taking private patients too.

There is a huge dentist shortage apparantely.