dental costs , frustrated

[poetry_writer]

I had to have a crown replaced yesterday.....$1270~! for removing old crown, making new one, pain meds etc. At what point do you determine that you are paying too much for fixing ONE tooth? At first they thought a root canal might be necessary, which would have pushed the cost up another $1200 or more, and include a trip to an endodontist (i think thats how you spell it, root canal specialist)....The cost is just out of control. I have had back teeth pulled rather than shell out a lot of money, but this is one I need to chew on. And I have other old crowns that will no doubt follow up with problems in the future. UGH. Dont suggest the "go to a dental school"...or "go to Mexico" thing, please. Neither one is near me. I guess I am just venting because there is no answer to this problem. Feeling frustrated and my mouth hurts! :D

[Life_is_Simple]

Poetry Writer,

I don't know if this helps, but I had a crown yesterday too, and it cost slightly more than yours. We might have been in the dentist chair at the same time!

To answer your question about when the cost is too much, it's hard to tell. Sometimes it seems like one's dentist is using patients to put their kids through college. Some dentists seem overly perfectionistic and want to do everything, and forget that we have to pay for these things.

My dentist yesterday surprised me. She is the overly perfectionistic type, and last year she wanted to do a bridge going across two teeth and a gap. But yesterday, she said she had been to a risk management seminar, and changed her mind on what to suggest to me. She wanted to just do one crown, not the bridge, and focus on being more aggressive against cavities, since that was a bigger issue in my case.

I hate to say this, because it may be bad advice. You know there is the saying, "Ignore your teeth and they will go away?" After my dentist last year suggested the bridge, I thought "That is just over the top." So I took some time off from the dentist. Part of me thought that SHE was the one who needed time to re-think the plan, more so than myself. And she did.

So I think you are right in just taking a step back, and evaluating in your own time what you want to do. If you can get your dentist to take a step back and discuss different options and plans, that may help --> like, the pros and cons of doing a less-than-perfect plan, in the dentist's eyes.

[reader99]

I hear you. Although I could stand to have back teeth pulled, I suspect I would pay for crowns on visible front teeth. And, yes, it is crazy what they cost. My late huband got tired of spending thousands to keep his last few teeth. We went to Affordable Dentures and he got a full set for $325 (extractions separate but they charge less for extractions than most dentists do).

[ApatheticNoMore]

Would dental insurance help? I've always thought dental insurance was a ripoff, but then I've never had big dental bills either, an ocassional filling is about it.

[Zoe Girl]

I have 3 kids and we all have difficult teeth, easy to get cavities and lots of root canals and crowns. My mom has had teeth simply crack and I had my first tooth crack and lose a part at maybe 25. My daughter had 2 root canals at 18. I am sure we have all had a few teenage years of neglect but none of us were that bad. I pay for dental insurance and watch it carefully to use my maximum every year, it is a lifesaver. Through work it is very affordable. Generally the work ends up less than half the original cost. I have Delta Dental and it is accepted everywhere I have lived.

The other thing I do is a credit card just for dental work. I don't have great credit but if I pay it off under a time limit the interest is zero. I have been charged one finance charge so far but it was worth it to get the work done. Right now my dentist is saying I need to deal with 2 very old fillings before the teeth crack and I end up with a root canal. The last root canal he did a build up and then didn;t finish the crown so I could get these other 2 done. I may have to pace it out and eat softer food for a long time to get all of them done even with the credit card.

[rosarugosa]

I would pay pretty much anything to keep my teeth as long as I could afford to do so. I have a decent dental plan through my employer with Delta, like Zoe Girl. It costs me $572 per year to insure DH & me. Since it pays for our cleanings and preventative care with no deductible, and I get my teeth cleaned 4 times a year (DH does 2 times), I think it's worth it just for the preventative care. There's a $100 deductible for restorative stuff and then an 80/20 cost share. I needed two crowns in the past two years, luckily no root canals. I think my out of pocket was $250. for one and about $400 for the other, so I guess I'm pretty fortunate.

[jp1]

WHen I was a kid I had braces for four years, which I'm sure cost my parents a small fortune. The end result was nothing short of spectacular though, so I consider it money VERY well spent on their part. At that time, and the rest of my time as a juvenile, my mom hounded me about taking care of my teeth, and I listened. Today, at 45, I still have the attitude of "I was given 2 sets of teeth. One is long gone. If the second set don't last the rest of my life I'll have to pay for the next one." As such I go to the dentist every six months like clockwork and try hard to do good home-care. (I swear that the sonicare toothbrush is the best invention ever...) For the most part I'm successful, but when younger I had cavities on most teeth and have had all of the fillings replaced at least once as they aged and now have had many replaced a second time. Only one crown and no root canals. Knock on wood...

I was just at the dentist last week and she pointed out two teeth that have small fillings only on the sides. They aren't 'pretty' because the fillings are no longer the same color as the teeth they are in, so the dentist suggested that I might want to replace them. She feels that she could make them look much better with the modern technology that didn't exist 20 years ago when they were done. My only question was "is it medically necessary?" Unless someone is really looking into my mouth they won't see the defect, and I'm certainly not having trouble eating, so for now they can wait.

I agree with the idea of getting dental insurance if it's available from work and then planning visits to utilize the full benefit each year. The one 'real' dental problem I've ever had is that the very back, inner jaw bone on my lower right jaw died about 7 years ago. At the time I had to go to the periodontist to deal with it, but that procedure left a pocket under the tooth. I've been keeping it clean with a waterpik since then. Last August the dentist noticed that the pocket was getting worse. The new periodontist said there's new technology to deal with it better than last time (some sort of filler to go between the roots), but it was a $1,800 procedure. I was able to put it off until this January so that I could utilize this year's insurance limit plus plan ahead for the non-covered part with my Flexspend account.

[jp1]

One side story that really has nothing to do with this, but heck, laughing is always a good thing... My grandfather's best friend needed to get full dentures when he was in his 70s. His teeth were so stained (imagine a grizzled old farmer, born in the early 1900s, now an old man...) that when the dentist tried to match the color they didn't have a color dark enough. Grandpa's friend's response was "If I'm going to buy a new set of teeth I want the whitest ones you can give me!" The dentist tried to talk him out of this plan but he insisted. After he got his new teeth he was so proud of how white they were that with everyone he saw he'd smile big and say "What do you think of my new teeth? Don't they look great!!!???"

[BayouGirl]

We are fortunate in our tiny town to have a medical/dental community care center that provides medical and dental services which are priced based on a sliding scale according to income. For instance, a root canal in the bigger cities were over $800 dollars but at our clinic it is only $265, cavities cost $25 to fill. The dentist and doctors are great and their salaries and the clinic is funded by some well written grants and the dentist and doctors serve about 2 years with us at which time much of their student loans are forgiven for coming to work in such a small rural area.

[dado potato]

Dentists have asked me and DW if we want to keep our teeth. In the 60's decade of life , I guess some folks consider the costs of preservation are just too much. All my life I would pay whatever was required to get a job done right in there. It's personal!
I have not been convinced that dental insurance is a good deal.
What I do is set aside in a savings account $x per month ($100) based on the subjective belief that in an average year DW and I will have to pay 12x ($1200) for our pearly whites. It's in a credit union savings account and ready to go.
In principle, any annual amount could be saved for on a monthly basis in the same manner.

[Maxamillion]

Except for extractions, which my insurance thankfully covers (and is the only dental work they cover), any other dental care is out of my budget. I've just had to accept having several missing teeth. My teeth break pretty easily. I've got two right now in the front that are broken in half that, once I get over this cold, I've got to schedule an appointment to get them pulled. I've thought about saving for a set of partials, but with how fragile my teeth are, I'm afraid of having another break and not being able to wear the partial, which would be money I can't really afford down the drain.

[poetry_writer]

Buying dental insurance isnt an option......I would pay to have a front one fixed, but those old back teeth that are mostly filling....probably will be pulled. What lovely options one has when uninsured...This tooth became painful very fast despite my going to the dentist and having regular cleanings. all my back teeth have crowns and/or fillings. The Sonicare is a huge help and I had quit using it several months ago. I will definitely go back to it! Thanks for the ideas everyone