Can anyone advise re: a dental / orthodontic issue? Desperate.

[opalescent]

I have an very complex backstory with my teeth, which has been going on for a few years.
The basic and important points though, are:

-I clench and grind terribly at night
-I have lost three adult teeth as a result (I'm only in my 30s)
-The progressive loss of teeth has made my bite awful- my front and back teeth barely touch, and I basically clatter around on my pre-molars. This causes constant aches and pains.

I use a very expensive night guard, which does mitigate some of the harm.

Anyway, I had a consultation (at great further expense 😖) with an implant surgeon this week. He basically said that I will need orthodontics before I can pursue implants, as my current malocclusion will ruin implants. He feels that if I do nothing, I will continue to lose teeth.

This will all cost thousands to correct. I am a nurse, on a modest salary, with young children 😞

My question is - is there any NHS help available for someone in my position? Surely there must be a dental hospital somewhere who would offer me orthodontics and possibly implants at a reduced price? I take incredibly good care of my teeth. I feel that I seem to have the only catastrophic medical condition that just isn't covered by the NHS, because it relates to teeth 😫

I have been under various dentists (both NHS and private) over the last few years, and at no point has any one ever mentioned referring me on to a dental hospital.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Honestly I don't think you will get orthodontics on the NHS as an adult unless there's something major, normally you have to make a special funding requests and its only really an option if youve got a skeletal problem rather than tooth loss. And implants are not available on the NHS unless you have lost teeth as a result of mouth cancer, trauma or hypodontia/cleft.

When you say you've lost teeth to clenching and grinding how do you mean? If you clench at night and wear a bitegaurd that should protect your teeth to prevent further damage. Losing teeth to clenching/grinding is unusual

DH had had terrible issues with his teeth, and I'd been nagging him for months as his breath was awful. Turns out after pushing the Dentist for x rays that he'd got such a nasty infection in his jaw that it had actually left a hole. He needed to see a private specialist who had to do an implant into his jawbone, then attached 4 new implants to as it had damaged his front teeth.

Cost nearly £15k which wiped a very big chunk out of his savings. Absolutely nothing could be done via the Dentist or NHS..............

Dentist here. Your situation sounds very complex and multifaceted. You need care with a specialist multidisciplinary team. This might be possible at a dental hospital. Unfortunately the wait for this might be too long for you to wait without significant deterioration. Without a full examination it’s impossible to say what your options are, there may be other relatively affordable options but you will need to accept some compromises with the end result.

Thank you all.

@bonzo77 if I were your patient, where would you be referring me to receive specialist care from a multi disciplinary team? Would you refer me on to a dental hospital? Can I contact a dental hospital independently?

I live in the Southwest, so I guess Bristol is my closest.

The teeth that were lost- I should be clear. I do not know that they were cracked or anything like that. Rather, I had them extracted over the course of a few years, because I got persistent pain in them, and was offered no real understanding of why, or treatment plan by my dentists at the time. In the absence of a clinical reason for the pain, they both (there were 2 dentists, at different times) kind of said 🤷🏻‍♀️ we don't know why they hurt. All we can do is extract.

I did not know that I was a clencher at the time, and the dentists did not offer this as an explanation. I did not wear a mouthguard at that time.
If I knew then what I know now, I would not have opted for extraction. I feel let down in general.