we have a decent NHS dentist, so routine stuff all well priced. Toothache in a molar last week led to root canal work (£200) and 4 days later the same tooth cracked, now needs a crown in January, at £300.

Jeez, could buy a bike for that… 🙁

Should be £233.70 no matter how much band three treatment you need within two months.

Sounds like they are doing the crown privately.

http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/1781.aspx?CategoryID=74

Based on the standard scale a root canal should only be band 2, so if he’s been charged £200 for that, it would appear that’s not NHS either.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the single charge thing – had a filling crack last week just after visiting the dentist for some work and didn’t get charged for fixing that.

I assumed he was rounding down for simplicity 🙂

I’ve never had great dental health so resigned to coughing up quite a lot.

Of greater misery to me is how, just when you find a tip-top dentist, they move away or retire or some such, and you have to go through iterations of very average (and some rubbish ones) until you find another good one..

Dentistry is an aspect of health where the care, detail, skill and general ability (not to mention manner) are thrown into great relief..

But band 2 (root canal) is only £50, not £200

I’ve got teeth like a caveman’s necklace and had to cough for a private root canal. 850 brick, you got off lightly.

Thats a very good price. You wouldn’t pay that down South.

Hmmm, not sure how charging works. Have never had to pay more than a few quid per visit, unless white fillings which I think were about £70. Ah well, getting old sucks 😯

Rockhopper is right. Root filling alone on the NHS is 53.90 and with a crown it’s £233. Statistically a root filled tooth will last longer if crowned soon afterwards.

In dentistry, like life, you often get what you pay for, both in quality of materials used and time and effort spent by those using them. Crowns particularly are an area where the quality of the item is definitely affected by the materials used.

To give a good example, an old dental lab we used used to have its apprentice technicians making 12 NHS crowns a day. The senior, experienced and more skilled technician did the private ones. He could only make three up to the required standard.

Are you sure you’re registered as an NHS patient?

He could only make three up to the required standard.

really? Was he really slow? techs I used could make 10 pretty bloody good crowns in a day easily. and would’ve got “the talk” if they were only making three!

Alright it’s an anecdote. But I was trying to make the point that not all crowns are the same and spending more should mean a better quality job illustrated in terms someone outside the industry could understand.

How do you think that dentists afford their new bikes 😉

I knew you’d be along Mark 😀

Double post