[mamaley]

i was told today that i have the beginning stages of periodontal disease--my gums have been bleeding for a while and this doesn't surprise me. what does is that it costs around $1000 for scaling (the procedure that treats it...basically a super-deep cleaning), $400 with insurance which we fortunately have. does anyone know if this is typical?

 

[chersolly]

Are you able to get a second opinion?

 

[mamaley]

yeah, that's probably what i'll need to do

what a pain...

 

[Mrs Dimples]

When I was a dental assistant, our fee for the procedure you describe was $800 for the entire mouth (sometimes it isn't necessary to do the entire mouth). I don't know your specific situation, obviously, not being able to see your chart

, but gum disease is yucky. It has been linked to heart disease, preterm labor/low-birthweight babies, etc. It's basically an infection in your mouth, so you are constantly exposed to it. If you have this done and then take care of your mouth (floss!) you should never need to have it done again, barring some remarkable genetic predisposition. If you don't treat it, eventually it usually leads to tooth loss. Basically your gums just detech from your teeth more and more, until there's nothing holding them in place and they come out.

Now that may never happen to you, and it may not happen until you're 90 and don't care anyway

but it's out there. So yes, it is a real problem - again, I don't know how far advanced you are, it kind of depends on how much you trust your particular dentist. I haven't working in a DDS office for almost 2 years, so I'm sure the fees have gone up some, but $1000 sounds a little steep to me. Just a little.

HTH!

 

[mamaley]

thanks rachel

i definitely want to treat it, but i don't want to pay more than i have to. thanks for the info.

 

[Mrs Dimples]

Did they say how bad your perio was? Do you remember any specifics?

 

[kimmysue2]

I had that done a couple years ago (cleaning teeth every six months is SO much better) and it was about 800.

 

[mom22lilguys]

Your treatment would probably be a combination of scaling, root planing and maybe currettage. Usually the treatment is carried out in a series of appointments.

All the offices I have worked in charge for for this type of treatment in 20 -30 min units @ about 35-45.00 for each unit. I know prices can vary from dentist to dentist and depending on the area. I would ask for a breakdown of the estimate and call around to other offices to compare the fees.

I have seen people spending that much and much more when periodontal disease is involved.

 

[mamaley]

here's what happened (and i'm very glad you're here to talk to me!)

the dentist (who was very nice) said that i had some gingevitis (sp?) and that i needed to have a special cleaning. they were able to fit me in for that cleaning after my appointment, so i went back with a dental hygenist. she started working on me, and she said that she wanted to go back and talk to the dentist, so she did, and then she comes back and says that she's seeing a lot more bleeding and that it was bleeding whenever she poked it even a little. she said it was the very early stages of periodontal disease, and that i needed to have the scaling done. then she showed me how much it costs

 

[mamaley]

thanks for the input kimmy and diane

 

[Mrs Dimples]

Has it been awhile since you had your teeth cleaned? What you described sounds pretty kosher to me, basically it looked to the hygienist that your needed what is called a debridement cleaning (kind of an in-depth, haven't been in for awhile surface cleaning) but when she got in there, it was worse than she had originally estimated and in order to do it right, she needed more time with you and to get more involved. That happens all the time.

But it sounds like in your situation you would be fine to wait fora little while if you need to save up money or whatever. A couple of months isn't going to kill you.

 

[mamaley]

thank you so much!

 

[mamaley]

mrs. d--do you think i should bother with the second opinion or asking around, or does $400 with insurance seem reasonable to you?

 

[Mrs Dimples]

Well, it kind of depends on your insurance. If the DDS you saw is "in-network" for you, or covered at your maximum percentage, or whatever, then I probably wouldn't bother, because I would say it is unlikely that you would be able to find a substantially less expensive rate elsewhere, and if you get the total down to $800 instead of $1000, you save $200 total, and your share if that would be what, probably $75? So it kind of depends on how comfortable you feel with this office and how much it's worth to do to bother with getting a second opinion (which your insurance may make a stink about you having another appointment when you just saw someone - you just never know, sometimes they are freaky about things like that

) You don't necessarily always get what you pay for in situations like this - you may find a great hygienist who is just starting out, or in an office in a crummy part of town, who will give you great care and be less expensive, or you may get someone who doesn't know what they're doing...KWIM? From what you said happened, it sounds like a pretty good setup, like they tried to do the less expensive cleaning first, but it just wan't happening. If I were you, I would probably just have it done there. You never know, they may get in there and find it's not as bad as they thought and then you'll get a better deal than you were prepared for!

Does that make sense? The office I worked at was in a swanky part of town, but our fees were very reasonable because the Dr. was just a really nice guy, so I think the price I quoted would be about what you could reasonably expect to pay, plus add on some for time elapsed, inflation, etc....

 

[sapphire_chan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mrs Dimples Basically your gums just detech from your teeth more and more,

Like that guy with the worms? (Was it you who posted that story in the Gross thread?)

Oh, and if this violates the talking about other threads thingy (I think that rule's just for closed threads??) Irishmommy can delete it.

I'm good, I'm good.

 

[Mrs Dimples]

Nope, sorry, not me.

What worms?

 

[Smilemomma]

That was me, heh heh heh ...