Root canal

[Alan]

My dentists says that I need root canal, it being private treatment i am also being charged for the anesthetic. Is it really necassary for root canal treatment? How painful can it be???

[Webmaster]

Well Gordon Brown rather famously underwent root canal treatment with no anesthetic. However I think it all depends on whether you have any nerve endings that are in danger of being damaged during the treatment. If you DO then I'm sure you'll feel it, for example in the film "Sir Laurence Olivier" tooth drilling is used as a form of torture. Not nice. I'd take the injection!

[ali]

id take the injection any day. No pain no gain is a stupid saying anyway!

[Jane Parsons]

 
Ihad root canal yesterday - with injection and a bill for £350. An hour's work. How can this be? What have I got in my root canals now? Diamonds? I am very very sore today, but I'm told it was to be expected. Ithink it's because my bank account is banging on my tooth. I'm in shock. And my dentist tells me I now have to have the bloody thing crowned, and guess what, it costs £350. I'm thinking about it very hard, and am tempted to leave it but don't know whether that just makes it all worse.

[HiHo]

Given that this figure is fairly typical price for a private root canal and £189 for a nhs one does anyone have an idea of how much the average private and nhs dentist turnover per year and then how much profit they end up with as a effective salary?
I guess the variety of work would lower the average takings per day. One root canal brings in more cash than 3-4 check ups per hour, but i don't know what the overheads are for a root canal versus a checkup.

[UKAmericanChick]

That's just a ridiculous price! Last spring I had a root canal and paid privately...including x-rays (they took about 10!), 2 injections of anesthetic, and a white filling, it cost £120. I was expecting it to cost a bit more than that, but would NOT have paid nearly 400! I am going to need to get mine crowned as the back of it became weakened and has broken off...not sure what the price from my dentist will be, but may go NHS for that one...I'm not in a rush for it because it doesn't hurt.

[HiHo]

That's just a ridiculous price! Last spring I had a root canal and paid privately...including x-rays (they took about 10!), 2 injections of anesthetic, and a white filling, it cost £120. I was expecting it to cost a bit more than that, but would NOT have paid nearly 400! I am going to need to get mine crowned as the back of it became weakened and has broken off...not sure what the price from my dentist will be, but may go NHS for that one...I'm not in a rush for it because it doesn't hurt.

I'm not so much wondering how other dentists are so expensive but rather how yours is so cheap! root canal for £120 plus other stuff? with a crown you are again probably going to be looking at close to £400 but maybe cheaper with your dentist.

[riptoff]

Teeth that have had root canal treatment tend to be more brittle, that is why they should be crowned. If a root treated tooth splits through to the gum, it is probably doomed.