I’ve done that. It wasn’t bad, really. I couldn’t afford dental care otherwise at the time and it was a lot better than continuing to be in pain! (That said, I’m much happier to have dental insurance now.)
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Like @awfulhorrid, I used the Harvard Dental School clinic when I was young and broke. I’m happy we have insurance now.
The US has its own dental deserts. I remember reading a story a few years ago about a pay-what-you-can dental clinic that rotates through the rural heartlands, setting up hundreds of treatment chairs in sports arenas and civic centers. The rows of chairs made for an arresting image and imagining the collective shriek of all those pneumatic tools made me blanch. But then again, living with dental pain is miserable enough that it probably sounds like a symphony to the patients.
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Throw in some Toothache plant for an additional effect
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Same here, but a lot of people find it impossible to find an NHS dentist, and the private ones cost so much more people end up doing without. It took me a year on a waiting list before I got an NHS dentist (I live in a large city), thankfully I didn’t need anything doing.
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Thanks, I would if I could! I’ve looked into it, and unfortunately Canada won’t have me. My niche job isn’t on its list. 
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Moving to Canada has crossed my mind. But lawyer work is damned state/country specific
It horrifies me people are doing their own dentistry anywhere. Sad the NHS seems to be failing on all sides 
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Sad that they are killing it. As pointed out above it isn’t really the cost, it’s that dentists won’t take you.
I believe it’s hell trying to find a doctor to take you on here too. Real shortage. Particularly during Covid doctors and nurses realised that they were expected to work until they died of exhaustion and houses were still unaffordable.
They realised you could fuck off to Australia or somewhere if you harboured plans to have children/a life.
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You are right. I should have been more specific. NHS has been starved of funding and appropriate legislative support as well as a campaign by UK conservatives to vilify it.
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While I haven’t “done that”, I did watch my 4 wisdom teeth being extracted. Even offered to help. I determined afterwards that indeed I could pull a tooth on out of myself or another person or pet, assuming no other option and significant distress.
But a root canal? A filling? Seems insane.
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Bear in mind though that those bands only cover one “course of treatment” which has to be concluded within six months.
So savvy dentists noticed that if you start a course of treatment such as a root canal, put in a filling and a temporary cap and tell the patient that “for clinical reasons” the temporary cap should stay in for just the right amount of months before the final cap goes on, you get to charge Band 3 charges twice even though it should all be covered in one charge.
TLDR: if getting treatment for more than one thing within a band, make sure the treatment is started and finished within six months.
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In Kentucky.
and so on.
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Somehow I got really lucky, I just rang up a nearby dentist and said “do you take NHS patients?” and they said “yes”. They do always try and up-sell me on getting cosmetic work done, but I can always just say no.
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Good for you? You don’t know what others are dealing with, are going through, or have available to them to deal with an issue like that. I don’t think we should generally assume we can or might do is gonna be the same for everyone else. 
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Wait those prices are amazing holy shit.
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Killing an infection with urine? Who’s? Are you treating your kids?
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Please point out where this post is doing that. As I read it, it makes no claims about what others are dealing with, mentions grinding poverty as a motivator for choice and ends with a personal comment. There are no assumptions about the choices of others.
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