Need root canal (I think) - can't afford the £1700 I have been quoted! - I don't know what to do??!!!

[bloss]

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According to what price you should expect to pay around £700 for root canal and crown.

There are no dentists in the area accepting new NHS patients for Winchester residents right now.

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Did you try Friarsgate, bloss?

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Do keep trying different private practices.

Two years ago I was quoted £800 for a front tooth root canal treatment, and was so disgusted by the whole glossy-brochure, paying through the nose for the image kind of set up from the ONLY dentist that my own dentist said could do the work that I didn't get anything done. Not 'was the best' or anything, the only one who could do it.

I also live in an area with no remaining NHS provision, though tbh, even in areas with NHS coverage there are an awful lot of treatments that aren't covered anyway.

Luckily for me a contact through work gave me another (private) dentist's number to try and I was quoted £400 for the same job. Which the (specialist endodontal) dentist did perfectly.

Keep trying different dentists. If you have to go private, shop around and use the market that dentist were so keen to set up. I just get so pissed off with this mixture of paying a fortune for private treatment (not choosing to, having to) and being expected to act as if we were still on a list with no options but to go where we are told.

Sorry Bloss, I knew they weren't taking NHS, but thought they might have more reasonable private fees.

crikey it's no wonder people are having teeth removed instead of paying these extortinate prices

Dont know about cost (doesn.t do NHS) but Michael Meyer in Winchester is very good ime

www.westgatedental.co.uk

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I paid just under £200 for two root canals and a white crown on the nhs. This kind of thing makes me so mad. I'm really grateful for my lovely nhs dentist but it shouldn't be this way. Without him I wouldn't be able to afford even the cheaper prices you've been quoted. What are people in my situation supposed to do if they don't have an nhs dentist?

I may be in same boat as you bloss . Seeing my dentist in 15 minutes, will know after that, hopefully. I'm in a lot of pain, though, so can't really wait or take the time to shop around .

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Hi again,
For £50 today, I had the nerve zapped (pulled out with the remainder poisoned in situ, you don't want to read the detailed leaflets on it!), and a temporary filling. I now have to make a decision now between root canal + crown (£580) or having the tooth out completely (£60) -- within a few weeks.

I probably will go for root canal and crown. This is entirely private treatment, I couldn't get a NHS dentist within 10 miles. We live in rural East Anglia.

Dentist said that there is 60% chance of root canal+crown being a "success", in which case it will probably last 20-30 yrs. Not a success would mean niggling on-off pain, and eventually taking the tooth out. She reckons that the not-successful pain would almost certainly be an annoying ache rather than excrutiating like the last few days have been, so I might be able to learn to live with it.

Good luck Bloss(!!)

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Glad things sound more positive Bloss.. I shall think of this thread when I am at the dental hospital next month talking about my impacted wisdom tooth!

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No.. it is very troublesome and needs to come out and dentist doesn't think he can do it in the surgery. Besides if they do it at the hospital it is free!

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Just for the record I had 2nd root canal appt today - a pain free experience and I'm the very worst where dentists are concerned. Bill was £350 at private dentist in rural Kent. Friend told me that it would be ebtter to have tooth removed than go through RCT - I'd recommend getting dentist who knows what they are doing with the anaesthetic - this makes a huge huge difference. Good luck though - I'd have it done again without getting at all nervous - I love my dentist!!

I have access to a top notch NHS dentist through my work at a university.

However he advised me that he could indeed attempt the root canal treatment I needed, and would genuinely try to help me if I asked him to, but the problem was that he did not have the same high tech equipment or expertise as a specialist endodontist. This meant that the failure rate for the work was going to be a lot higher than if I went to a specialist. The chances were that I would end up losing the tooth anyway.

He advised me that there was an uneven geographical distribution of specialist endodontists because really NHS access to them was confined to dental hospitals, and as we were in an area without a dental hospital, I would not be eligible for a referral to one, being outside their local areas.

So he said it came down to the following choice because where I lived. Either I could let him give it a go and have a one in two chance of losing a tooth, or I could go privately for it straight away and have a very good chance of keeping the tooth for the rest of my life.

I think it's extraordinary that if I break my leg, I can get an NHS referral to an orthpaedic surgeon, but if I need root canal treatment, this appears to depend on whether I live near a dental hospital. I pay the same national insurance as everyone else, so why am I being penalised like this?

The NHS dentistry service is pants in this country, and the private ones are ripoff merchants.