Teeth, dentist and pregnancy

[surreyBest]

In my pregnancy two of my teeth cracked and I had to pay for a white filling & treatment and two crowns (as the third tooth also needed a crown), also white, as I couldn't bear having metal. Dentist said I have to pay since the NHS only covers metal fillings and crowns, so I had to pay around £2k in total for everything. This sounds insane because I never had that many issues before falling pregnant, so even though pregnant women are supposed to get a free dentist treatment yet I ended up paying a lot more compared to when I wasn't pregnant.
Was my dentist right or was it unlawful?

To begin with - metal fillings and crowns contain mercury I think (right?) so they are not even allowed for pregnant or breastfeeding women?
Is there even any organisation which regulates dentist practices? Ours now begin to look so dodgy to me, recently they charged me for a checkup twice in 2 months, even though check ups are supposed to be done every 6 months. I went for a follow up the second time, but they said it was a full on checkup again because it was with another doctor.

It’s just basic treatment. You need to pay extra for white fillings.

You chose to have a more expensive filling that wasn't covered on NHS so you pay. The levels of mercury in dental crowns are tiny, many people already have crowns when they are pregnant, there's no problem with them. You chose to have a more expensive treatment that there was no medical need for.

They will charge you for the dentist's time on every visit obviously..

I don’t actually think they should be using amalgam on pregnant women unless it’s absolutely necessary with no other choice at all. I’m pretty sure it was restricted years ago so if a white filing is suitable that is what they must use and they cannot charge a pregnant woman for that. I’m not 100% sure on this but personally I’d be looking into it.

The crown issue is strange as crowns are covered under the NHS and while they are normally silver they do not contain amalgam so are not restricted in pregnant women. So in this case if you wanted a white crown only then yes you would likely have to pay for that. But not the filling. That should be covered under the NHS for free as they should not be using amalgam on you unless there was literally no choice.

www.england.nhs.uk/south/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2018/08/cdo-letter-amalgam-08228.pdf

Dental issues are common in pregnancy, hence why you get an exemption certificate for treatment, but it won't cover the best dentistry or really anything beyond your gums. Things like gingivitis are common in pregnancy-related dental complaints as all the hormones can mess with your gums.