Cost of dental work

[LibbyR79]

Hi
Just wondered if I should gain a 2nd opinion. I have been quoted £50 for another consultation then £850 to have a root canal followed by a crown costing £695. I could have root canal done with a different dentist who isn't as qualified with less success rate for £650 . Are these typical prices? I'm quite shocked. I expected expensive but not this much!
Have been with same dentists for years and not sure if I'm under a time limit to get it done. So feeling a bit stuck but can't bring myself to make the appointments at the moment.

It sounds about right. I had my tooth pulled out for this reason as it was cheaper.
I honestly don’t know why dentists can charge so much when it’s a vital service, prices have got out of hand.

I got quoted £1200 for root canal. Got the tooth extracted for £80. It's at the back so can't see it.

That sounds a little high, my dentist charged £1250 all in.

Why lose a tooth? I know it’s a lot of money but I’d pay to keep mine!

Thank you for the replies. It helps to know that even though the cost doesn't seem justified it seems fairly normal. Thanks again.

Assuming you're in the UK, can you register with an NHS dentist?

Shoot me but this is why I have all my dental work done abroad!

Well I paid my nhs dentist £175 for a white filling replacement Taft didn’t require any additional drilling and no pain relief, that took less than 4 minutes. I was literally in dentists building for 8 mins

it cost me £1475 to have a private dentist for a silver cap filling on my 9yo kids molar.

my plumber charged me £275 to replace a valve on a radiator, and I wouldn’t trust him in my mouth

Sounds normal for London/SE (some are higher), but it's totally ridiculous for a vital health need, given many people are not in a position to pay this, but still need the treatment.

I just looked at my cheap as chips dentist’s charges.

Root canal from £450, crown £625.

Assuming you are in the UK is it a joke?

No, it's not.

I'm having a crown on a broken back tooth in a couple of weeks. It happened about 6 months ago and it was very sensitive at first and sharp so kept catching my tongue. I asked for it to be removed but she refused because it's not loose.
I could probably ask for a different dentist but I am NHS so they would probably take me off the books.
It's a filled tooth and not sensitive any more but has started catching my tongue again so at my last check up I agreed to the crown.

It's £319 for the crown and it's £1000 if done privately.
I'm also having two replacement white fillings on my front teeth that I had done well over 10 years ago where they had eroded at the gum line. They are now getting a little discoloured and becoming noticeable. They are £121 each as its private because it's cosmetic.

That private price is shocking! My private dentist charges £240 for large white fillings, and won't even offer silver ones. You were robbed in my opinion.

I didn't even know private dentists were still doing mercury fillings

Sounds very cheap to me but I’m in central London.

It’s worth paying the extra for someone who’s an expert with root canals. They’re easy to get wrong and can cause more issues later on if not done thoroughly.

£850 is also what I've been quoted for a root canal. From what I understand, the root canal treated tooth doesn't need to be crowned straight away. The treatment will make a tooth weaker and a crown is advisable in the future. However, I had a root canal treatment on one of my teeth over 20 years ago and it's not yet needed to be crowned.
With NHS dentists @Clarice99 if you are lucky enough to have one - great! I have an NHS dentist but it's recently gone private/ partially private. They only offer the most basic treatment on NHS prices (for example amalgamate filling). My NHS dentist refused to treat my painful tooth, which requires root canal treatment. She said she doesn't specialise in this treatment. I had to go to a private dentist, who explained that root canal treatment is not profitable for NHS dentists and they don't want to do it.
I'm looking at going abroad for my necessary RC treatment, as £850 is just extortionate.

Well, I don’t know.
the private dentist clinic who treated my kid was excellent. Every step of the process was perfectly calm and gentle. The sedation, the bedroom for waking up in, the explanations etc perfect.
I would do something rougher and readier for me, but things like this for my kid is what a use a credit card for.

if you don’t have the root canal you could have a denture. I have one for one tooth after a failed root canal 20years ago.
the replacement denture cost me £750 is a very rough and ready dental technicians in central London. So you could opt for that instead. But that doesn’t seem ideal

This is not a silver filling, it is a stainless steel hall crown. In order for it to be placed the child would have to have been sedated , so you are paying for a crown to be placed, sedation, a sedationist and a sedation trained nurse . Plus the equipment for the crown , and the sedation equipment , reversal agents , recovery room etc.
No rip off .

For the obvious reasons that I could not afford the treatment and was in a lot of pain!
Not everyone can just find the money.

To justify the cost

a specialist endodontist will have spent a minimum of £30,000 on post graduate education, this is on top of the £80,000 student debt the average dentist qualifies with. Specialist equipment like an operating microscope will cost around £20,000 , the disposables like a capsule of MTA cement that is used to cement the root filling in place costs £90 a capsule , the disposable , one use drills will cost £40 a time , the specialist endodontic motors and other equipment will cost thousands , the room itself will cost a minimum of £200 an hour to run, the specialists indemnity (malpractice insurance) will increase and will be five figures .

Most specialist root treatments will be at least a couple of appointments , and will be at least a couple of hours .

It is hideously expensive to provide dentistry in the U.K. and the artificially low NHS fees on which practices make a loss give an unreal skewed view of what it actually costs to provide dentistry.

Thank you @Monoceros for taking the time to explain your experience with your NHS dentist. All the best with finding a cheaper option for your root canal.

Root canal treatment is on the list of NHS dental procedures, in price band 2, so it seems very unfair that they can refuse to carry out a procedure that's documented in the NHS cost bandings.

What makes you think the cost isn’t justified?

The problem is litigation. There is a system of grading the complexity of root fillings , https://www.dental-referrals.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Referral-Criteria-for-Endodontic-care.pdf

many root canals are graded as complex and the problem is if a dentist who is not a specialist attempts a complex root treatment and it fails , there is basically no medico legal defence and a treatment the dentist has already lost money on will end up costing them thousands if a patient sues and a U.K. dentist is more likely to be sued than a dentist anywhere else in the world.

Specialist endodontists do expensive post graduate training (£30,000) and invest in specialist equipment eg operating microscopes (£20,000) and materials .

The problem then occurs that in most areas of the U.K. there is nowhere to refer a complex root treatment , and the very few places there are it is very unlikely most people will be accepted for treatment and there are long waiting lists. So basically most people needing a complex root treatment will need to be referred privately.

As technology has improved it is more possible to save teeth that previously would have been extracted. But that technology is very expensive and is not , on the whole , available on the NHS , especially for the derisory fees it pays.

Are you anywhere near a dental hospital where they train dentists? Would they do it? I read a lot of root canals fail so I’d be worried about spending so much money and it failing. I’ve been on an nhs dental waiting list for nearly two years and just got in so it is worth joining waiting lists if anywhere near you has a waiting list.

NHS didn’t charge me that for root canal treatment & my crown was £300 odd