&*^$£!!!!!

[Kaz]

Rotten eh Di? This will be my fourth dentist's visit in just over a month, and then I had all those appointments back in the summer for the plate! I must have been about eight or nine times altogether! I'm sick of the blooming place, and I still get pretty anxious despite having worked on myself! Before I did I couldn't even get through a dentist's door, and that's no exaggeration

[meriad]

Kaz, I'll be honest, I'm a bit confused; I thought bridges were always fitted via a cap on the two teeth adjoining the gap? At lest that's what mine is???

My bridge has been as strong as an ox from day one and it's anchored on two teeth that - I think - have both had root canals as well which means the tooth itself wasn't quite healthy to start with but a good anchoring point??

[Kaz]

Ria I'm no dentist but this method, with the metal wing, was put to me as perfectly usual, and in my case (the surrounding teeth being healthy and me not biting down onto that tooth normally) was recommended......

C&P'd from a dental site

Maryland bonded bridges (also called a resin-bonded bridge or a Maryland bridge) are made of plastic teeth and gums supported by a metal framework. Metal wings on each side of the bridge are bonded to your existing teeth

[Fugitive]

My bridge is the same type as Meriads. You don't lose the anchor teeth as they are shaped to grip the bridge. I don't know the cost of your failing bridge you have right now but I do know that the other sort of bridge is very expensive so you may have to go for one of those as they are solid as a rock. A shame you are having these problems

Back to bed with tea now. This hour mucks me up.

[Kaz]

Thanks Fugi The current one cost me £214 which is the max an NHS treatment can cost. The other type of bridge, from what I can gather by Googling, would cost the same under the NHS, but even so I'm not happy about the idea of having to pay twice I'm not working these days, and we are supporting B at Uni and topping up her fees, so money is a fair bit tighter than it has been

The reason my upper plate was so expensive was that they only provide plastic ones on the NHS and I went for a private chrome one.....Hence it costing three times as much

I'm assuming you are a private patient from what you said........

[tonicha]

Kaz, straight back there and don't give them any more money until it's sorted and you're happy.

[Kaz]

Don't worry Ton, I won't!!! I made the payment after the first treatment when I had no reason to think it might go wrong, there was no charge when I went on Wednesday for them to try again, and from what I can gather from the NHS website, £214 being the max NHS charge for one course of treatment, I don't see how they can charge me again! Just me getting my knickers in a knot I expect.............

I'm just glad I am an NHS patient, I dread to think how much this would be costing if I wasn't!

I'm determined now to go for the full 'capped' bridge, no more faffing with these new fangled cement/metal wing jobbies, even if it does mean more drilling!

[tonicha]

A friend of mine is considering inplants

Not sure if I'd go that way, I'll see how she goes on. Not that I need any - yet

[Kaz]

Implants can cost several grand apiece Also it is surgery, they place the metal into the gum then it needs to grow in for a few months, then you go back and they open the gum and screw in the teeth!

My niece is going through all this at the moment. She broke some teeth several years ago when she fainted in the street and fell on her face - because it was an accident cased by a medical event ie a faint, she got full NHS funding and it isn't costing a penny, but it has been painful and invasive. First they tried to save the broken teeth, but that didn't work, then they removed them (the two front uppers, poor girl) and she's had a plate ever since......not nice for a pretty girl in her late teens/early 20s

I'd have to be rich and brave to go down the implant route and I am neither of those things

I believe it can be a lot cheaper abroad though, I know a lot of people go to Hungary and such places from the UK for cosmetic type dental procedures these days.......

[tonicha]

Inplants or implants - not got a clue. I acrtually typed both earlier

She's thinking of going to a dentist in Moncarapacho, where I also need to go to sort out my tootypeg wot broke

And she'll be doing it on her private health thingy - what it is to be rich