Got in from the dentist a few hours ago. Haven’t been for my regular check up for, um, a few years. Yeah, I know, and I am deeply ashamed. I have four new cavities, two old fillings that are breaking down and need to be replaced and two front teeth which I’ve worn down through nocturnal grinding.
Grand total if I have all the work done would be $795.20 and that’s after insurance.
Now, I could reduce that somewhat by having the old metal fillings replaced with new metal fillings, but I’d still be looking at something like $600.
There’s no way I can afford this right now. I can only hope that waiting on them doesn’t screw my teeth to the point of needing replacements.
On the plus side, my gums are largely healthy and the bones that anchor my teeth are in good shape.
Back in late 2001 and all through 2002, I spent nearly $3000 on my teeth (after many years of poor care) WITHOUT insurance!
Does your dentist offer a payment plan?
I just had a root canal. A single tooth that had, unfortunately, four canals, means AU$1400. I don’t have this covered by my insurance.
Later this year I have to have wisdom teeth and other extractions done. That will cost an absurd amount of money. Hopefully my insurance will cover that. But I fear not.
This is why the British get so uptight when successive useless Governments run down the NHS (National Health Service).
I pay £13 for a filling, and not much more for two. My prescription drugs cost me £6 per month, and a vist to the doctor is free.
Almost without exception - whatever happens to me, or whichever noxious disease I contract - the state will pay for me to be fixed or killed off, whichever is cheaper.
If I had to pay those prices to get my teeth fixed I’d take my food through a straw.
Ah, Otto, you sound like me fifteen years ago. Things deteriorated rapidly from that point. I have dental insurance that covers $1,200/year. Last year I went $4,000 over that and this year is shaping up to be a record year. More than half of my teeth have root canals and we are now in the expensive process of capping most of the suckers.
One note of caution. If any dentist ever tries to send you to an oral surgeon for an apicoectomy run away fast! An “apico” is what they do when a root canal fails (many years later in my case). I thought it would fix my pain just as efficiently as the original root canal. Not quite.
This sadist gave me a nanogram or so of local anesthesia and proceeded to make incisions in my upper gum AND MY PALATE to get to the part of the root that can’t be accessed through the tooth. Then he drilled and stitched until I was drenched in nervous sweat and consumed by homocidal ideation. The price for twenty minutes of torture was> $2,000.
Six weeks later, I was in pain again so I looked this procedure up in my medical books. Damn thing has a 60% failure rate! And my joker dentist informs me that I should go back to the oral surgeon because, “he can do it again if it doesn’t work the first time.” Yeah, right. I told him to go ahead and pull it 'cause I was not spending another $2,000 to be tortured for nothing again. He acted as if I was the crazy one here.
In my next life I plan to take much better care of my teeth.
Wow, I sympathize with you guys.
My son is/has some major teeth problems. In December we spent ~$450. Only one cavity, but the rest was other work done. He will need orthodontics in the future.
Last Friday, I took my daughter in for a check up. They did x-rays, not cavities, but her two ( permanent ) teeth are too big for the spaces that were left by her two baby teeth. The permanent teeth are very crooked. We thought they may want to pull one or two teeth to accommodate the new teeth. The dentist was awesome. He told me her jaw would grow, and the teeth may become straight on their own. If not, I guess braces may be in her future as well.
Hopefully, all the work being done on my son’s teeth will make him want to take care of his teeth, so he doesn’t have to have a lot more work done as an adult.
I haven’t have a cavity in around 14 years. I am thankful for that, but I did have my four wisdom teeth removed surgically when I was 18. I think it only cost $20 for the co-pay with the insurance.
When I was younger, just a bad little kid
My mama noticed funny things I did
…
She said, "My boy, I think someday
You’ll find a way to make your natural tendencies pay
I am in the same boat. I know I’m getting a cavity in a tooth and haven’t been to the dentist for a good long time…but there’s just no way I can afford to go in, have the tooth filled, have a check-up, all that. Ever since I went off to college, I have been sans insurance and, luckily, there haven’t been any great calamities to my health, but I know I’ve let a bunch of routine maintenance stuff go…which I expect to pay for in the next two decades (both in terms of hard money, health problems, and time in doctors’ offices).
Me too. I just had a root canal ($980 including the build up for the crown) and the crown will be about $1000. I don’t have $2000 to spend on one tooth right now. I have to have the crown done, if my tooth breaks off now I have spent $980 for nothing.
moi - go get it done. The reason I have to have this root canal/crown is because I put off having a cavity filled. When I did get around to doing it, it was a deep one. I finally had it fixed. It was fine for about 5 years, but then it started hurting the week I started back at school - not the best timing. The worst is when it started throbbing right in the middle of a mid-term. All I wanted to do was get out of there and eat some Advil, so I didn’t go over my answers as thoroughly as I should have. Believe me, I regretted not getting the work done right away.
Coincidentally, I am sitting here with half my face still numb from my morning appointment with my dentist. I’m being crowned–got the temporary today, opefully the real one will b eready next Friday. My tooth, filled brim to brim with a silver filling, was cracked and I could chew on that side of my mouth. The dentist suggested fixing it before it broke, but said many people wait until it does break. Why? Even I could figure out that if the tooth breaks, it may break in a way the forecloses the option of a crown, and it’s going to cause you a lot of pain until it gets fixed (because the tooth will break at 3:00 am Saturday morning on a three=day weekend when you’re out of twon in a remote area without an emergence dentist). As it was, I save her (my dentist) some drilling time–she barely touched the tooth and it fell apart. So, in essence, I waited until the last minute, but not too long.
My insurance only pays half for a crown. I can afford it, but i have much better things to spend my money on!
On the bright side, I’m having a milkshake and french fries for lunch!