NHS Dentists Have Ruined My Teeth

I'm currently suffering with both of my upper right premolars which are badly broken and literally rotting in my mouth thanks to the handy work of two NHS dental practices, which in the space of a year have between themselves managed to completely ruine my teeth.

I originally went to the first dental practice following the fillings dropping out of both teeth. The treatment plan devised at the time was for both teeth to be root cancelled and then crowned (band two NHS). The root canal was completed and temporary fillings placed. However I was promptly deregistered after having to cancel an appointment on short notice due to sick children. I then had to wait over four months to see another dentist by which time the temporary fillings that the first dentist put in had degraded and fallen out leaving me with exposed root cavities which became infected.

The second dentist that I saw informed me that the first dentist was simply trying to make money off of me and that I only needed both teeth to have the root canals repeated and then filled (band one NHS). I’d agreed to this course of treatment on the principle that this dentist seemed honest and reputable. However the fillings continued to fall out over the course of the next few months, they must have refilled the teeth around five times per tooth, each time more and more of the original tooth was destroyed until my second premolar had completely shattered and sheared right off at the gum line. Following this my first premolar became reinfected yet again i.e. the second root canal had failed and I had an acute infection around the apex of one of the roots. The dentist treated this with medicated dressings which also continued to fall out.

I'd simply had enough of this and decided to go to a third dentist which I had to wait another month to see. This one was highly recommended by family, friends and colleagues. However upon arriving I was made to wait one hour and twenty minutes for the appointment. When finally meeting the dentist he was rude, arrogant and patronising. Upon concluding a very heavy handed examination he thrust a pamphlet at me detailing private fees and proceed to try to coerce me into paying them.

The gist of his 'advice' was that I'd waste my time with the NHS treatment as they would choose substandard materials and techniques which would ultimately fail. He tried to hard sell me on either private root canal therapy followed by private crowns or 'for a better foundation' as he put it, private implants; all carried out within their group practice/s of course! Needless to say that I walked out and refused to pay the £35 XRay fee and the £20 'checkup' fee they tried to demand...

At this point I am sitting here despairing, as mentioned previously, literally with a mouthful of broken and rotting teeth. Moreover I have no clear plan on what to do next. It occurs to me that NHS dentists are either not capable of undertaking the work or they simply don't want to due to the potential cost based on risk of failures.

I cannot afford to pay thousands for the treatment yet equally so I cannot afford to loose the teeth due to them being a highly visible part of my smile line.

So far I have raised all of this to the GDC and the NHS. The GDC didn't want to know unless the NHS escalated a case up to them and the NHS have a very slow turnaround time apparently; and time is most definitely not a factor that is on my side with this kind of problem.

Unfortunately there are no dental universities in my region or in the immediate vicinity of it and moreover they traditionally have a long turnaround time and compounding eligibility criteria.

I am wondering if there is anything that I am missing/not aware of that I can be proactively doing right now? What advice can you offer me? Should I simply find a fourth dentist to pull the teeth and then try to manage the physiological and professional implications before sepsis occurs...

I honestly find it incredible that in this day and age and especially in the west that one can be left in such a state...

1 like, 6 replies