dentistry

Well, if you fancy a weekend away in Hungary I've heard they do expensive dentistry for a lot less than here.

The snag is that most dentists use independant labs to have the actual crowns made. And they set the price they charge for the work. Which is usually far higher than the NHS will pay. So the dentist has to do his side of it at a lower price per hour of work than other things which are totally under his control.

In some ways it's a pity the individual couldn't simply make up the difference. That would be much cheaper than going private. But far too logical for any government.

I did that 10'ish years ago (bone graft, implants, crowns and bridges) all still in good shape, a filling they did at the same time could do with replacing by a crown - I wish they'd just done that at the time rather than "save" it ...

And if you have a problem with it, where are you going to go?

Couldn't find anything about crowns and bridges, but

Does the front tooth still have a usable root? That can make a significant difference to treatment options and the actual cost (although not the NHS charge). A crown on an existing root would probably be £400-£500.

I asked my dentist what the (private) charge for a bridge was, as a rough guide for a friend, and he said around £400 per tooth involved. So for a missing tooth bridged to the ones either side, £1200 would be typical. However, costs can vary considerably due to individual differences (and that was probably 5+ years ago).

Another option if there's no root is to have a titanium socket inserted if the bone is in good enough condition. If the bone is not in good enough condition (often the case if there's been no tooth there for a long time), you might be able to first have a bone graft done (I knew someone who had this done some years ago). No idea on the cost of this, but probably quite substantial.

That was the crowns and bridges before the final bridge was installed onto the implants to give the bone-graft time to "knit"

Just over 1 million Forints, plus some cheap flights and hotels.

which begs the question, what are these NHS figures based on? Maybe they're viable in certain areas but not anywhere near London. And if dentists won't do their side at a reduced cost, why have an NHS contract at all? I suppose there are times when they can do five minutes work and shaft you for the band 2 fee.

That would seem to be a sensible option

Dunno if the amount the NHS will pay for lab work is weighted according to the part of the country.

But it's not new - my dentist was a pal and said crowns weren't profitable for him in London. 40 years ago. ;-)

Sadly, he's retired now. My current NHS one does everything at a million miles an hour. Not exactly confidence building.

Seems you can have an implant done for a grand now, in Harley Street too!

In my case the root has apparently cracked, so the crown can't be re-cemented. Been there for 44 years so I can't complain!

Can't really see any justification for our dentists being the most expensive in Europe. You can even fly to Munich and still save a packet

How was your experience? And how did you find a good dentist over there?

I needed a dentist in Budapest a couple of years ago - serious toothache, turned out to be an infected root. We just asked at the campsite, they pointed us to a clinic in the town centre. Excellent service, far cheaper than it would have been in the UK privately, and probably not too far different to NHS price - but the surgery "felt" properly Harley Street. The dentist was drop-dead _gorgeous_, too...

Yeah, mine too. Lovely looking girl, but when that chair goes backwards she becomes the teenage psychopath

Went to mine to have a fairly old crown glued back on. He didn't wait for the glue to go off before scraping off the excess. Came off again later. Charged IIRC £40. He did it again - same thing. Went to a local private dentist who did it properly, and it's been fine since. But cost 3 times as much.

spoke to my dentist about this and he said Government cut backs were causing this......that is why he is pushing private work .....

My (private) crown was £27 to pull off, clean up, and refit. That included a temporary antiseptic filling for 2 weeks before refitting, as it had got infected underneath (although that was probably not factored in to the original estimate). I wasn't allowed to floss around it until it had been inspected 2 weeks after glueing in, so that is 3 appointments, although the first and last were only a few seconds.

My Polish sister-in-law saves up her toothaches for visits back to her Polish dentist. It's private, but apparently very much cheaper than here.

I've just been reading about the Maryland bridge, which seems like an option given that the teeth either side are pretty good. If the worst happens I can always glue it back.

But nothing explains why our private dentists are the most expensive in Europe, if not the world. They remind me of gas engineers, who think they have us over a barrel but who are actually chasing fewer and fewer jobs.