on an old root canal treated tooth and that no NHS

Q. Iam informed that I need an apicoectomy on an old root canal treated tooth and that no NHS Dentist can perform it also the local Dentistry Hospital can not perform it. Questions: Is the treatment really going to cost £500? What is the cost or is it a lottery? Where can I find a private dentist who is able to offer this specialist treatment without telephoning every entry of yellow pages? Why is it that an NHS dentist can’t perform the treatment but a private one can afterall they all have the same training ?

A. Dentists qualify with the same knowledge ( approx) but the training varies drammatically depending on how much investment they are willing to put into costly postgraduate training courses.  Due to the poor fees paid to NHS dentists per type of treatment they tend to have to keep their heads down and work incredibly hard.  Apicectomies are difficult to successfully carry out.  If I required one I would seek an endodontist to treat me.  Your local dentist should be able to refer you to a local endodontist  - the fee sounds about right for this type of intricate work ( truly microsurgery)

Dr Julian Caplan
Aviva Cosmetic Dentistry
Director on the board of the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry
www.avivacosmeticdentistry.co.uk
101 St. Peters Street
St. Albans Hertfordshire
AL1 3EN

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Tags: NHS, nhs dentist, nhs dentistry, root canal, root canal treatment

This post was published on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 5:29 amand is filed under Dr Caplan's Answers, Experts Answers, Q. General dentistry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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