shocked by dental cost with a maternity exemption

[petiteHBB]

Hi,

I went to a local private clinic two days ago as a newly registered NHS patient with a maternity exemption card. After the examination, the dentist said 4 surfaces need to be filled and asked me if I'm breastfeeding (i said yes) and which material I prefer (white composite vs silver amalgam, I said white). Then I got a treatment plan indicating that two at the front cost £170 each and two at the back £198 each, so in total £736. I'm in London zone 3 btw.

I was shocked tbh and thought nhs needs to provide white fillings to breastfeeding women? (I have no problem paying for the extra cost for the white filling at nhs rate, but this seems to be entirely private). Does anyone know how it works? and is this the price I should pay?

Thanks a lot!

Perhaps it wasnt explained properly to you. Buf AFAIK white fillings are not done on the NHS but are private work. And NHS cost exemptions don't apply to private dental treatment.

No, white fillings are done on the NHS.
Usually where your smile line is. No way would any dentist I know of whack a silver filling on a front tooth.

Thanks again for all the replies!

Just wanted to give an update. I just went to another dental care primarily for NHS patients. The dentist said that all the treatments are free for women with a maternity exemption, including the white filling. However, after the check up, the dentist said the four teeth that the private dentist adviced to fill are in the very early stage of forming cavities (he can see they started to be black). For now it's not necessary to do the fillings, just need to use special tooth paste and keep monitoring every 3 months. The comments from NHS and private dentist are contradictory and confusing. Anyway, in the end I didn't get any fillings.