Newbie to new charges help

[pault]

Hi,

I had to go to a dentist today due to breaking a tooth and it being very painful.  I went private as I wasn't able to be seen by an NHS dentist for up to 3 weeks and this was urgent.  The dentist seemed good and temporaily patched my tooth and told me I would need root canal, which he showed me on the xray. I have been given a price of £500 for doing root canal work on one of my rear molars (large back teeth),  I have other work needing doing, 2 filling need replacing (they are old, worn and broken) and two new fillings. Total cost of all the work is around £1080. and was wondering if this price seems right.

Also I was wondering is it worth getting the tooth extracted and a bridge putting in? 

Will the NHS do bridges or is this considered cosmetic?

Thanks

Paul

[HiHo]

Hi Paul

£580 for 4 fillings seems like a lot of money. The root canal seems a little pricey as well.

On our average figures the total cost would be £810 to give you an idea.

My old dentist warned me off bridges unless necessary as they can make it hard to clean neighbouring teeth, eventually resulting in more decay - so I was told. Anyway I didn't have the bridge work done by her. Bridges should be covered under band 3 of the NHS £198 per treatment.

Jon