dental treatment

[Kizzy68]

Have heart murmur and need root canal treatment but have been told 6-8 month waiting on nhs but they will do privately can’t afford this do I have any other options

[Lowerfield_no_more]

If you are in England there might be some wriggle room in bringing your NHS treatment forward since 6-8 months is longer than the max 18 weeks the NHS have as a target. Where you are in the referral process and whether you have accepted 6-8 months may affect your situation

More here

nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/about-...

nhs.uk/nhs-services/hospita...

[fishonabike in reply to Lowerfield_no_more]

root canal treatment is done by dentists, so the usual targets for medical treatment don't apply - dentists are independent contractors and work to completely different rules

[Lowerfield_no_more in reply to fishonabike]

Absolutely agree that dentists contracted to work within the NHS work to a different set of conditions to the rest of the NHS. That's why I couldn't reconcile the OP wait of 6-8 months for dental work, to my own experience of my NHS dentist (yes I'm fortunate to have one!) who will see me within 2 weeks maximum for serious stuff when needed, and that is in addition to the private work he does, so concluded OP was having treatment at the dental services team at a hospital. Otherwise perhaps the heart murmur is the defining factor on waiting time. Since OP has not responded to comments so far we may never find out.

[fishonabike in reply to Lowerfield_no_more]

it could be that an NHS dentist, who gets paid less for NHS work than private work, would make patients wait a long time for NHS treatment in the hope they will ask to be seen privately

also root canal work needs a couple of long appointments with a gap in between and it can take time to fit those in to a schedule packed with check ups and short appointments which generate marginally more profit

[10gingercats]

As well as the advice given by Lowerfield you can try the dental dept of your local hospital if the have a dental dept.My husband had an extraction through this channel. I would advise going in to the dept and speaking to them. Husband was successful and put himself on the cancellation list and was seen the next day!Worth a try.

[fishonabike]

in addition to what 10gingercats said, it might be helpful o have the support of your cardiologist for earlier treatment