Is 800 euros for a root canal justified? Why so pricey? What involved?

thethingis

Ive read the charter and hope its ok to ask this question.

A friend has been quoted this amount and my sister similarly from a different dentist.

Are these fees excessive for 1 hours work?

helimachoptor

Google what's involved op.

Oral Surgeon

thethingis wrote: »

Ive read the charter and hope its ok to ask this question.

A friend has been quoted this amount and my sister similarly from a different dentist.

Are these fees excessive for 1 hours work?

An hour, that's pretty quick, you should pay him more for his efficiency....:)

btkm8unsl0w5r4

You can get a molar root canal from price from 200-2000 euro. Depending on the difficulty of the job, the experience and qualifications of the dentist or endodontist (root canal specialist). 200 euro for a bad job is a total rip off. 800 euro for a good job may very well be excellent value.

People will come on saying how they got a root canal for 100 euro, but that like saying I got my house painted for a grand. Yeah but what size is the house, who painted it, etc. etc.

Cost and value are not the same thing. Quality dental work is expensive due to the time involved and the time it took the dentist to acquire the skills to do the job. As OS says the actual time spent doing the work is only a part of the cost. A poor quality root canal will cause you so much more problems and cost so much more money in the long run, get the best job done you can afford.

srsly78

Over the years I have had 2 root canals done for free in the TCD Dublin Dental Hospital. This is only available for acute emergencies however, and they only put in a temporary filling afterwards - gotta do dentist afterwards to get it properly sealed up. Also I'm pretty sure it's students that perform the operation

There is supposed to be a fee.... but they forgot to bill me both times. I ended up going back in and basically forcing the receptionist to TAKE MY MONEY!! They said they had no record of me owing anything, but I insisted on giving them e100. Very happy that they looked after me.

thethingis

srsly78 wrote: »

Over the years I have had 2 root canals done for free in the TCD Dublin Dental Hospital. This is only available for acute emergencies however, and they only put in a temporary filling afterwards - gotta do dentist afterwards to get it properly sealed up. Also I'm pretty sure it's students that perform the operation

There is supposed to be a fee.... but they forgot to bill me both times. I ended up going back in and basically forcing the receptionist to TAKE MY MONEY!! They said they had no record of me owing anything, but I insisted on giving them e100. Very happy that they looked after me.

Happy days. Very honest of you.

srsly78

*ahem* I only paid them the second time :pac: The first time was years ago when I was a penniless student.

Oral Surgeon

srsly78 wrote: »

Over the years I have had 2 root canals done for free in the TCD Dublin Dental Hospital. This is only available for acute emergencies however, and they only put in a temporary filling afterwards - gotta do dentist afterwards to get it properly sealed up. Also I'm pretty sure it's students that perform the operation

There is supposed to be a fee.... but they forgot to bill me both times. I ended up going back in and basically forcing the receptionist to TAKE MY MONEY!! They said they had no record of me owing anything, but I insisted on giving them e100. Very happy that they looked after me.

The dental hospital A&E would only do a first stage root canal treatment for someone with acute pain or infection. It is highly unlikely that they would do the final root canal filling in the A&E setting.
Are you sure that your root canal treatments were completed??

srsly78

My post stated that they only do stage 1, leaving a temporary filling in. I still had to go to a dentist afterwards.

johnwest288

Mate of mine a right tad wad needed 4 root canals on his molar teeth he just had them pulled out when he found out the cost lol

Oral Surgeon

srsly78 wrote: »

My post stated that they only do stage 1, leaving a temporary filling in. I still had to go to a dentist afterwards.

Ok but you said that you got 2 root canals done and just needed a filling afterwards to seal them... that suggests that both root canal fillings were completed and needed the tooth filling....
So really, neither the root canals or the tooth fillings were completed in the dental hospital so you paid €100 for the emergency visit and then needed to pay your own dentist for the 2 root canals and 2 fillings??

bureau2009

johnwest288 wrote: »

Mate of mine a right tad wad needed 4 root canals on his molar teeth he just had them pulled out when he found out the cost lol

But that doesn't exactly advance the cause of optimal dental health unfortunately......:mad:

srsly78

Oral Surgeon wrote: »

Ok but you said that you got 2 root canals done and just needed a filling afterwards to seal them... that suggests that both root canal fillings were completed and needed the tooth filling....
So really, neither the root canals or the tooth fillings were completed in the dental hospital so you paid €100 for the emergency visit and then needed to pay your own dentist for the 2 root canals and 2 fillings??

There was a 10 year gap between the 2 root canals. Both required a visit to the dentist afterwards for stage 2.

I can't remember the details of the first case, but in the second case my dentist completed the root canal for free. They had just given me a new filling the week before, and somehow this got infected and necessitated me attending A&E.

Oral Surgeon

srsly78 wrote: »

There was a 10 year gap between the 2 root canals. Both required a visit to the dentist afterwards for stage 2.

I can't remember the details of the first case, but in the second case my dentist completed the root canal for free. They had just given me a new filling the week before, and somehow this got infected and necessitated me attending A&E.

Very nice of your dentist as most likely you needed a filling as you had a broken or decayed tooth, this filling was deep due to the loss of diseased/boken tooth. This compromised tooth died and then needed a root canal... Not really the dentists fault as it was compromised to start with so doing a root canal for free??
A fair position to take would be that the patient pays for the root canal treatment but not the replacment of the filling that was originally paid for...

Good luck,
OS

srsly78

I didn't demand or expect anything from the dentist. These things happen.

Ms White

I had root canal on a front tooth last year in Dublin and it cost €300. I commented on how quick and easy it was and he told me that it was because it was a front tooth rather than a back one with big deep roots. So maybe I'd have paid more if it had been a different tooth.