Dental advice please (sowwy nuffin to do with movies) :(

[Sydney_Bristow]

Hey FMUKers,

I need urgent advice regarding dentists / dental treatment please.

My Nana has been having toothache for the last couple of weeks. She's taken paracetamol for it and we managed to get an appointment with her dentist earlier this week. When she called them the first time, they said they couldn't give her an appointment until late, the day after. She said she was in a lot of pain so the receptionist gave her an emergency number to call. When she called the number the answering machine message indicated that they were unavailable/closed. Calling the dental surgery again she went ahead and made the appointment for the next day as it was better than nothing.

The dentist was nice enough, took an x-ray and told her that she has an abscess in her gums around one of her molars. She gave Nana antibiotics for it but said that she will need to have some kind of root canal treatment. Her gums need treatment as well (apparently due to one of the medicines she's taking for a pre-existing condition) and the tooth might not be able to be saved.

Apparently the machine that will be used to treat/clean it will be better or dentist will be more thorough if we do it privately. She said that even if she does it privately it doesn't mean that the tooth will definitely be saved, although the chances of losing it will definitely be lower.

She quoted various costs very quickly so from what I gather, although Nana could have the treatment done free on the NHS (she's 80 years old), dentist made us feel like it would be a more thorough, better job if we did it privately. We definitely got the sense that she was pushing us in that direction by even saying that if it was her own Nana she would do it privately.

Also, she said that there are different....fillings?/implants? that would be needed afterwards....again, she quoted so many different prices up to £1400 for the varying qualities so overall cost would be nearly £2,500. It was a lot of information to take in and although I asked for any literature with details of what the treatment entailed and pricing she said she didn't have any to hand and we should simply call her after completing the antibiotics course to let her know whether we want to go private or not.

Thinking about it now, I'm not even sure I trust the dentist to do a good job since it came across like the money was more important than Nana's tooth/teeth & wellbeing. Maybe I'm being paranoid? I don't know.

I know Nan is elderly but that doesn't mean we want her to have any substandard treatment, which is what the dentist made me feel it would be if we went the NHS/Free route. If we need to go private we will raise the cash somehow, I don't know how but we'll somehow pull together, although Nana doesn't want to go that route. She's a firecracker, we love her to bits and she deserves to have it done properly.

I don't know what I'm expecting from you guys but I do remember reading about various FMUKers having problems with toothache/dentists.

Any advice about what to do in this situation, or even advice about whether one can just go to the hospital to see emergency dentists would be helpful?

Please, any advice on this matter would be so helpful and I would be so grateful because I'm currently at a loss as to what the best route would be and even if the options we have been offered are any good.

Thanks for reading.


P.S. Please excuse my grammatical/otherwise errors. I just typed that in one breath(so to speak) as I'm upset because Nana is in a lot of pain and paracetamol isn't helping her enough.

[Beate]

I'll tell you what I would do and that is get a second opinion. I don't trust dentists that want to push you onto the private route, especially if they are reluctant to give you all the info and your nana could have it done entirely for free on the NHS. And if she's 80 already, what difference does it make if she loses a tooth or an implant won't last that long?
Usually hospitals have dental departments so if it's urgent I would go there and ask for help.

[DAL1977]

Hi,
The NHS will provide treatment, although they will not provide/install implants they will supply dentures.
Even if you have to p*y on the NHS the maximum charge is around £220 regardless of the works required (multiple crowns, fillings, dentures etc) as long as they are completed as one course of treatment ( including multiple appointments).
It's worth noting that even If you have private treatment it can often be the same dentist carrying out the work.
Hope this helps and that you Nana is ok.

D

[ejwrank]

You might want to pm prettyxcool as she had a similar dilemma recently.

I think that a hospital dental clinic might be a good choice -- you'd have to wait but they won't be scaring you with sky high prices and ultimatums. Wishing your nan all the best.

[Sydney_Bristow]

Thanks so much for your advice Beate, DAL1977 and ejwrank! And yes, I've also pm'ed prettyxcool so hopefully she has some insight into the situation too - cheers for that tip ejwrank!

Nana had soup and a couple of paracetamol earlier and should be tucked up in bed now. Hopefully she has a decent kip.

I think you're right about getting a second opinion, Beate, and it might be a good idea to see the hospital dental department. Anyone recommend one in any central london hospital? I have no experience of hospital dentists I'm afraid.

Thank you for all your help - I was really clueless!

[asamaic]

Second opinion, definitely.

Dental work is horrible and expensive, and if you don't feel comfortable, you should never just go with the flow. Like ejwrank said, I think pxc managed to find a nice dentist at short notice, definitely get the contact details from her.

I'd recommend mine, but I don't know what availability he would have for emergency cases that weren't pre-existing patients.

The problem with NHS treatment is often it doesn't involve saving the tooth or looking pretty, but as Beate suggested, at 80 your nana probably just wants to be pain-free and doesn't give a damn about the rest. If that is how she feels, be upfront. A good dentist will accept that easily and not try to upsell the private alternative.

[prettyxcool]

Sorry for the late response, I was out at a friend's birthday party. I have pm'd S_B. I know exactly how S_B feels, and I hope I have helped with my advice. I don't want to slander all dentists, as there are dentists on this forum, but so many dentists are charlatans these days, but hopefully amongst them you can find good ones. I heard so many bad stories, but also so many recommendations of good dentists by friends, but unfortunately those were just too far for me to go to reasonably.

Definitely get a second opinion, as everyone has said. I did and I was so glad. All I needed was a filling, not three root canals and a crown at a cost of thousands of pounds as advised by the first dentist, and as like S_B, did not know what to do and very worried.

Guess what, the first dentist's practice has just written to me to let me know that they are going private and are not offering NHS service anymore, even though I never went back after my first consultation! Well at least I know why they were so pushy in getting me to go private. It was not for a better service!

[The Sparrow]

Sorry for the late response, I was out at a friend's birthday party. I have pm'd S_B. I know exactly how S_B feels, and I hope I have helped with my advice. I don't want to slander all dentists, as there are dentists on this forum, but so many dentists are charlatans these days, but hopefully amongst them you can find good ones. I heard so many bad stories, but also so many recommendations of good dentists by friends, but unfortunately those were just too far for me to go to reasonably.

Definitely get a second opinion, as everyone has said. I did and I was so glad. All I needed was a filling, not three root canals and a crown at a cost of thousands of pounds as advised by the first dentist, and as like S_B, did not know what to do and very worried.

Guess what, the first dentist's practice has just written to me to let me know that they are going private and are not offering NHS service anymore, even though I never went back after my first consultation! Well at least I know why they were so pushy in getting me to go private. It was not for a better service!

Can they be reported for that "diagnosis"? It is patently obvious they were only after your money.

[prettyxcool]

Sorry for the late response, I was out at a friend's birthday party. I have pm'd S_B. I know exactly how S_B feels, and I hope I have helped with my advice. I don't want to slander all dentists, as there are dentists on this forum, but so many dentists are charlatans these days, but hopefully amongst them you can find good ones. I heard so many bad stories, but also so many recommendations of good dentists by friends, but unfortunately those were just too far for me to go to reasonably.

Definitely get a second opinion, as everyone has said. I did and I was so glad. All I needed was a filling, not three root canals and a crown at a cost of thousands of pounds as advised by the first dentist, and as like S_B, did not know what to do and very worried.

Guess what, the first dentist's practice has just written to me to let me know that they are going private and are not offering NHS service anymore, even though I never went back after my first consultation! Well at least I know why they were so pushy in getting me to go private. It was not for a better service!

Can they be reported for that "diagnosis"? It is patently obvious they were only after your money.

A lot of my friends said the same, I should report her. But it is her word against mine. She did give me the NHS option, but kept emphasising that I would get better treatment on NHS etc. I had experiences of reporting malpractice, not with a dentist but with a surgeon, when routine surgery I had nearly killed me but all the hospital did was say they had followed all procedures etc, etc. and I had signed the waiver to operate etc. and at the time I did not have the energy to fight them, I just wanted my life back. I had followed up appointments and was treated as I was a hypochondriac, because I was still suffering from the symptoms of the botch routine operation. Incidentally when I googled the surgeon, he had been in court previously for killing some guy doing the same op, but when I mentioned this, they said he was not on trial, he was there only to represent the hospital. I was fighting a losing battle and as I said I wanted to get my life back, and not be treated like a hypochondriac.

[prettyxcool]

How very apt! Just saw this post:
http://www.fmuk.org.uk/forum/viewtopic. ... 41#p349441