Isn't this way to much $$$?

[mom2sunshine]

My 6 year old has his most recent 6 month cleaning. They did xrays for the first time and discovered 4 cavities. Two of them we kind of knew may develop, we were doing some watchful waiting. We brush well and eat pretty well, but are rather unlucky in the cavity department.

The Ped dentist gave me the estimate: W/the white fillings $1,300.00 and w/the silver filings $1,050.00. So either way - over $1,000.00. And I don't want mercury!

Those both include $40.00 for nitrous. Ok, that is more than I paid for my 2 yr old's dental surgery! We have no dental insurance, and I cant seem to find any standard rates anywhere, nor do I want to spend another $60.00 for another consultation.

Does anyone know if the above is reasonable? Thank you so much!!!!!

[midwifetx]

for crying out loud! I think that we've never paid more than $50 per cavity and then an additional $15 for nitrous.

[aprilibarra]

ours found 4 cavities and wants to do a pulpectomy on two with sedation at almost three thousand after crowns. she's three. ...um, we're going to try to remineralize since the cavities haven't gone into the dentin yet.

[Love my 2]

Even with good insurance, it's amazing how much dental work costs!

[aywilkes]

I don't know what your hH income is like, but maybe try looking into subsidized dental care or services. I know they have stuff in the DC area. Or you could go to Ecuador and have it done. My fillings were $10 each!

[mom2sunshine]

Maybe I should come to Ecuador No, we don't qualify for any type of assistance. I could take him to the dental school at the University, but they charge nearly as much, and require day long appointment times, resulting in lost income for our family for minimal cost savings.... ugh. I suppose I should at least be gratefull we have health insurance.

I didn't think childhood dental was supposed to break you financially on a yearly basis.

[nicolelynn]

Originally Posted by midwifetx

for crying out loud! I think that we've never paid more than $50 per cavity and then an additional $15 for nitrous.

Wow...in America?!

I went to the dentist once during my childhood because my self-employed Father couldn't affoard it. At 25 I have a dental hmo through my husbands work...and it's still going to be $310 for a root canal CO-PAY.

Before we were married and got insurance together my husband paid cash for fillings- around $700 for 3.

Me- I spent 3 months in Poland and went to an excellent dentist there who charged me only $30 a filling (and she was a private up-scale dentist...not part of the socialized medicine system) and my wisdom tooth extraction was free because she sent me to a state clinic hehe.

[newcastlemama]

The white fillings at my dentist are $95 for a comparison.

[midwifetx]

My copay for a root canal is also $300, but simple cavities are not that expensive.

I do think that with recent advances in dentistry, the dentists want to do MORE than ever before. Every time anyone I know goes in to get their regular teeth cleaning, the dentist tries to talk them in to a Deep Clean (AKA planing and scaling) which reqires several visits and anesthesia to do, oh yea, and it costs 300X what a regular cleaning does (because a regular cleaning is free and this costs $300)

[oldgirl,newtricks]

something wrong here.

We live in a high cost area and fillings are $75 each. I prefer not to have my kids use the gas. I think it hard to have work done later if you get use to it, and not all dentists will use it anymore due to complications. One of my kids had several cavities and the dentist watched them for a good while before filling. We have chosen to do the amalgam fillings on baby teeth. Just a personal choice.

The reason you can't find standard prices is that it would be considered price fixing and that's against the law (can't think of the name right now.) Call around and get some other prices. I would go to another dentist. We could get a crown done for $1,000.

Gloria

[SHill]

You are right, that is a lot!

I've never heard of prices soooo high for getting cavities filled and I even work for a benefits company! I do know that some dentists give discounts if you pay cash.

I don't want to advertise to you because I work with a benefits company so all I'll say is this, you don't have to have dental insurance in order to save money on the dental work.

There are a lot of affordable alternatives. Sounds like you could save about 90% off those fees if you took advantage of some of the options available to you. Here is a link to an article that might help you out.

http://personalinsure.about.com/od/h.../aa082406a.htm

I wish you all the best!

-Stacey

[4evermom]

My memory is fuzzy, but I think I paid in the realm of $2000 to get 10 cavities filled in ds (the white kind done under GA, the anaesthesia and hospital $ not included in that price).

[SHill]

Ouch

Hey guys...

I did post the link to the article but can't help but feel like it's not enough. I'm in awe of what some of you are paying and have paid for dental care.

You shouldn't have to go broke to take care of your teeth. I can probably help most of you save a ton of money on this stuff but do not want to post my link here. If you want to get more information, feel free to give me a call. My voice mail is 800-819-4943. Don't worry, I won't try to sell you on anything. If it will help you out, WONDERFUL! If not, that's okay. I'll be happy to go over the plan with you and we can check the providers in your area.

Our plan does include everything and ongoing issues are okay.. so even if you are halfway through a mess in your kids mouth, you can swap them over. The only thing we don't include is orthodontic work already in progress so, you'd have to stay where you are with that.

Hope this helps. And I'm going to start giving my kids carrots instead of fruit snacks!

[4evermom]

I think it was the pretzels, actually. They have a much higher glycemic index than sugar. I was willing to pay the $ to go to the good dentist who only takes one dental insurance plan. Now we have insurance for ds which will reimburse us for much of his dental. Ds is highly sensitive and I'm not about to change a dentist with whom he is comfortable! It took three tries to find one this one.

[mamasgirls]

My daughter had 8 cavities fixed- 2 white fillings on the bottom molars, 2 stainless caps on the top molars (one pulpectomy) and 4 resin caps on her front 4 teeth and it was about $2,000- we do not have dental insurance, either. The first ped. dentist we saw, for the same amount of work, was closer to $3,500- so we went with the 2nd dentist. Our medical was also separate for the hospital/general anesthesia and after our insurance picked up 80% we still owed about $2,000 for that, too. I couldn't believe how expensive it was to fix her teeth.