Dental advice please - child root canal and charging costs ...a lot!!

[SunnySummerDays]

Hi just wondered if any Dentists are on here or anyone else who can help please as I'm a bit stumped.
Ds is 14 and had an injury to front teeth some years ago. He then had an abcess and root canal. The other week he had another abcess. Now sorted with anti bio.
I am a den plan patient at a private practice but the children always get treated nhs. I've never paid a penny regarding all this trauma treatment, root canal and anti bio etc and dentist is excellent.

But now after this abcess he said he cannot do more and referred to a specialist endodontic some distance from home. There has been talk about trying at it again or he may lose it.

Anyway specialist has looked and thinks he can try again and fix a fracture off the root canal. Great. But quoted a few hundred pounds for this. I did squeak to the receptionist he is a child. She said its chargeable.

So I've dug a little more online and I wonder if it should be free as a child and a trauma case. But it is a private specialist. So not sure.

Please can anyone offer any advice, I'd be so grateful
Thanks

Sounds like he's been referred to private dentist rather than an nhs one? Though it took 6 months for my DDs referral to the dental hospital

They've booked him in to do root canal over two appointments there at that dentist

Is there a dental hospital in your general area that you could ask for a referral to?

If it's time-critical though you might have to see the private specialist

I'd ring them and say you want referral to an nhs dental hospital - they have too! They've probably just got links to private specialists

You can be referred urgently on nhs - dn was referred with pain within days but DDs was largely cosmetic so we had to wait much longer

Well his appt isnt until March so do have time. I've made app To see dentist tomorrow for chat.
I obv want best outcome to save tooth. But really shocked about £600!
But as I can't really find any correct info online I'm In dark what's right or wrong. We rang nhs and they said no child pays. End of. So if that's correct they shouldn't have given invoice in the first place and would know that?

No child pays on the NHS but you aren't seeing an NHS dentist are you?

Not all dentists work in the bad though so if they're private I presume they can charge what they want. You can opt out of nhs and it sounds like this dentist had

Bad = nhs

My dentist is 'private' but treats kids on nhs. I've never ever paid for their check ups , root canals . Anti bio etc

It's true no child pays if the dentist works within the nhs. In fact more than one dentist has withdrawn nhs treatment for children while we've been patients, as could yours in the future (although I hope they don't).
So to get this treatment free you'd need an nhs referral.

We use a private dentist through Denplan. Treatment for my children is free except for specialist things like clear braces and expertise beyonf his remit.
You could ask for the work to be done on the NHS. It just won't be with that dentist and you will have to wait........ I had a broken tooth and had to have it 'done' on the NHS and I had to wait a YEAR!!!

The nhs specialists do have big waits but its policy that you have to be seen within 18 weeks - I threatened to report ours as it was 21 weeks - suddenly I had a Saturday appointment!

We're with Denplan too & the kids generally saw our Denplan dentist under the NHS while under 18.

They were referred to an NHS orthodontist through the practice. Denplan practices set their own rules though.

I suspect that if you insist on NHS treatment they might just extract the tooth though...

You aren't seeing your dentist for this with though are you? Am I missing something? They've referred you to a private endodontic?

Thanks all, yes a referral for more specialist knowledge because my dentist has already had one go at it. It was just a dentist not a clinic as such. He's just obv got more specialist knowledge. I believe he is a dental lecturer. He said he could try again at a root canal, whereas my dentist wasn't sure and wanted second opinion.
Im happy to ask for hosp referral but worry now they haven't got the expertise. Don't want the tooth to come out when he's only 14.

I had root canal at the local dental hospital, because it was a front tooth and required microscopy. They were excellent.

I did have to wait 6 months though.

It sounds very similar, caused by a knock to the front tooth. My own dentist wouldn't even attempt microscopy although she is excellent it was an immediate referral to a specialist.

Even as an adult there was no charge at the hospital. They did discuss the various options with me and warned me if this didn't work I may need to look at some pretty costly treatment. I'd be tempted to ask for a hospital referral and get another opinion at this stage.

There aren't dental hospitals scattered all over the UK, if OP is near a large population centre then there may be one that can be referred to but the local NHS trust or CCG still has to pay for this and not all will. Lots of district hospitals have visiting dental specialists but they rarely work full time in one place hence long waiting lists.

Pp mentioned dentist withdrawing NHS care for children, it's most likely that the "NHS" withdrew the contract. It's happened a lot in my area and many dentists have been forced to go private or denplan etc.

Op, a full and frank discussion of the options and consequences with your dentist is overdue I think. What happens if you leave it for 6months? What's the long term prognosis? What are the likely waiting times? And so on.

Sadly, it all comes down to money ultimately and dentistry falls quite some way down the list as far as commissioning goes.