hello all I find it very strange. I receive Pension Credit and as such joined an NHS dental practice, about 8 months ago. So now all treatment is free !!!!!!!!!??????? Well not exactly as it turns out. The story goes as follows. For the last 20 years I had been with Private Dentists, both in Uk and overseas. I have had many root canal treatments and crowns, always having been done by the dentist I was seeing at the time, without any referrals to anyone else. As soon as I joined the local NHS dentist and should be in receipt of free treatment, the first visit, was to correct a crown that had come loose. After consultation I was told that the dentist did not feel comfortable doing it, and was refrred to a `specialist` surgery for the root canal treatment. I contacted the specialist and was told that it would cost £1200 !!!! for one Root canal treatment, not a new crown, just the RCT. Needless to say I did not go there, but found another private dentist who did the job with no special equipment and charged me £150 to refit the crown, as in his opinion a RCT was not necessary anyway. Touch wood all has been OK for 6 months. Today I had toothache and agin went along to my NHS dentist and saw a different dentist. But hey ho, the same thing happens. I had a filing that had fallen out hence the pain, so after an Xray the dentist then told me i need a root canal treatment, but while she would start the job and put me in a temporary filing, I would need to get the full RCT done by a specialist, as they did not have the specialist equipment in the practice............ I find this all very odd, as I have never previously had to go to a `specialist` for RCTs and i have had many done over the years. I wonder if this has something to do with the fact that they can only charge the NHS a set fee, and for them to do an RCT is just not financially rewarding enough.............well at least that is what the private dentist I saw suggested !!!!. So they will do the stuff that they can make a good profit on but leave the patient to fund anything else cause they have an excuse for not doing it.