I'm trying to decide whether to get dental work I need done here in Canada or in the UK.

My dental problems are complicated. I have four bridges, three of which are fine. They were put on in the UK before I came to Canada. Two of them are over 25 years old.

The problem is with the fourth bridge, which I had put on here in Edmonton Alberta. It was a replacement for an old bridge because one of the key teeth had become infected and needed a root canal. The bridge put on here has always been faulty. It was replaced once, bits of ceramic have fallen off the replacement, and the other key tooth, a wisdom tooth, also became infected and had to be root canal filled as well.

Now the first of the key teeth to be root canal filled is infected again. I need the bridge removed and the tooth extracted. Then I'll have to have a denture to replace the bridge.

This morning the dentist gave me a quote for CAD$4050. I'll get around $1,400 back in insurance, but it is still going to cost me $2650. And that isn't the whole cost. At some point I'll also need to get the cap on the wisdom tooth replaced.

The alternative is going to the UK, airfare $1,445 and getting the work done there. I might even be able to get NHS dentures! It could also be a saving in the long run, because any denture I have made in Edmonton will probably have to be replaced within a year or two because dental work here is so shoddy.

I've had the offer of a project in the UK, and the company are talking about paying my fare over from Canada, if work starts before I'm back permanently next July. It's frustrating, because there is no time-table as yet and it would be annoying if I fork out for the dental work here, and then discover that if I'd waited a couple of weeks I could have had the work done in the UK.

I just don't know what to do. What would other people do?

Why not consider an implant instead of a denture ? Much better.

I'd have to have bone grafts, called a 'sinus lift' done first, four or five months before the implants. It would cost a fortune and be painful. I'd rather have dentures.

the first part of your post made my decision easy.

I would not let someone that I did not know fool around with my complicated dental issues.

Of course you could fly back, search out pay as you go non-NHS dentist & likely would have to go through all kinds of pokes, xrays & a 'what about WE try this that & the other'

NHS dentists are likely to not be the best value for money for your complicated situation - who knows


On the other hand you may get better dental treatment - but its a 50/50 chance that you'll be taking.

Consider this. The cost of travel to the UK, the cost of being there, the cost of having a pay as you go dentist/dental specialist treat you. Then you fly back everything is good - then complications set in. What then?

If it was me - I'd get the work done in Canada

Good luck with your decision

Hmmm. Fact is I'm rather nervous of having work done in Edmo. The two root canals I had done are fine. It's probably relevant that the specialist who did them was trained in Boston.

Everything else has been absolute shite.

My previous dentist insisted on a biopsy of a dark patch on my gum in case it was a melanoma. I had to have a general anaesthetic. I was in acute pain when I woke up, and the surgeon who'd done the biopsy chipped one of my front teeth.

When I saw my old dentist in the UK a while later he was amazed. Said that a simple x-ray would have shown it was just an amalgam tattoo, and a friend who is a retired surgeon told me that the actual chance of a melanoma in the mouth is about one in two million.

Then I had a filling that fell out and had to be redone. Then the bridge replacement that broke up, was replaced, fell off and had to be put on again, and then started breaking up again. The root canal specialist told me that the reason both the key teeth have become infected is because the bridge has lots of gaps beneath it that trap food leading to infection.

I've changed dentists, but my new dentist claims there is nothing wrong with the bridge, and the damage is just caused by tooth-grinding. She doesn't seem to be able to appreciate how illogical that is: whether I grind my teeth or not, I have three other bridges that are fine.

Fact is that Edmonton is a very small and isolated place, and a bit backward, and I'd probably be better off with dentists living a little closer to civilisation.

I'd trust any British dentist, or Hungarian for that matter (just looking into getting the work done at an Hungarian clinic) over one trained at the Uni of Alberta.

decision is made.

Book the flight to the UK in the meantime if necessary do a search for a good dentist/surgeon (maybe two opinions are necessary) in the UK or back to the one you know or trust from your last visit

I look at it this way: which country manages health care as a business in which the only consideration is to make a profit? I know Canada has a more decent system than the US (where I am presently located), but considering how much you are being charged, it doesn't seem that much better. As someone who was over-diagnosed and over-medicated for years, I would rather take my chances with the NHS, where I know I will only get the treatment I really need, and not be charged an arm and a leg for it. You said it yourself - the dental work there is shoddy. If it's going to be shoddy in the UK also (and it very well may not be) why not pay less for it?

Thanks everyone for your imput.

I've decided that what I want to do is have my Canadian dentist take off the bridge and extract the infected tooth. Then I'll go to the UK and get my UK dentist to make a denture and put a new cap on my wisdom tooth. That will actually work out cheapest. I'll use my mother's dentist in the UK. I've consulted him a couple of times myself though he has never done any work on my teeth.

Apart from the cost angle, it's the quality of the prosthetic I'm most concerned about. I don't want to pay a lot of money for a denture that falls apart in a year or two, in the same way my bridge has done.

Your dentist was right to be amazed, an amalgam tatoo shows up radio opaque on an x-ray easily distinguishable from an organic growth such as melanoma on an x-ray.

I don't know any dentist that would "cap" a wisdom tooth. Most Wisdom teeth do not have a good root structure and are never suitable for crowns.

When you say denture, do you mean removable partial?

I mean removable partial.

I've already booked the appointment with my Edmonton dentist to remove the old bridge and tooth, and my UK dentist for the denture. The wisdom tooth was the anchor tooth for the bridge, and has been so for around 25 years, so I think it is ok to crown.

I'm almost 70 years old and would fly back to Dallas for dental treatment. I have five younger siblings in the UK....my teeth are in so much better condition than any of my siblings, due to my dentist here......he says my teeth are younger than my real age, no thanks to a Belfast dentist who pulled rather than filled teeth.
Hopefully if I need further dental treatment I can afford to come back.

Because North American dentistry has the reputation of being better than European, I wasn't expecting to have problems with my dentist in Alberta. But, it really has been awful, and the resulting problems have made my winters here more miserable than they would have been, because the cold sets off sinus pain.

This is in contrast to the medical care I've had here. Our GP is just wonderful, and I'm really going to miss her when we go back to the UK.

So sorry to hear. My twin lives in Alberta, has had ovarian cancer and free for more than 10+ years. However she had dental work (crowns) 5 years ago. I hate them.....they resemble dentures :-(

Or it could be the reason the bridge failed. Without seeing your xrays it is just a guess.

I wish you well with your dental work and hope it all turns out for the best.

Yes. I have to be tactful about what I say about that. When I was first in Edmo I saw a lot of women I thought had very artificial looking false teeth. I even began to think that maybe the extreme cold damaged people's teeth so that they lost them early. Then I discovered it was just 'cosmetic' work.