I hate dentists in America.

[60'schild]

Yikes, those dental tools look scary...

Perhaps even scarier are reports like this suggesting that the future of dentistry is ... nanotechnology......

http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=inventors&cdn=money&tm=10&f=10&tt=2&bt=1&bt s=1&zu=http%3A//www.jprosthodont.com/article.asp%3Fissn%3D0972-4052%3Byear%3D2005%3Bvolume%3D5%3Bissue%3D1%3Bspag e%3D15%3Bepage%3D17%3Baulast%3DJhaveri

I'm for any dental advancement that means Pain Free but somehow the idea of nanotechnology (in someone's mouth) is a bit .... strange...

Attention Cavities.
We are the Borg.
Resistance is Futile
You will be Assimilated.

I keep hearing the voice of the holographic doctor ... something about the nanoprobes.....

[fallensaviour]

See if there's a dental school in your area. I know in Baltimore you could get work done for cheap by students.

Excellent suggestion.I was looking into it here and to go to the dental school you only pay $25-$50 here.The catch is you can not have insurance.

I was contemplating having one pulled instead of a root canal.Went with the root canal cost me $375 with 85% coverage...

[starsky]

i hate dentists as well. it always seems like they're trying to sell you something. they'll say your filling needs to be changed, need to do xrays, regular xrays wont do, they need to do panaromic xrays. i even had one dentist tell me i had to pay up front and then they'll have insurance reimburse me.

[Seeker]

I'm with Hector. Gimme a $100 bucks I'll get a pair of pliers and a bottle of wiskey. No problems

[Hector]

[Seeker]

You can even swear all you want..... I read somewhere it helps with pain.

[MegoSteve]

$200-ish isn't really a bad price.

As much as it sucks to go to the dentist, it's so much better to go every six months and take care of your teeth than it is to suffer in pain and let them get to the point where it becomes an emergency. The way your teeth can deteriorate, the choice is to either pay now to get them cleaned and filled or pay a whole lot more later to have root canals and crowns.

And the condition of your teeth has a lot to do with your general health, too.

[Seeker]

You could always try the Tom Hanks "Castaway" Ice skate blade and a rock method.

Ughhh when ever I think of that scene I get an involuntary shudder.

[Rallygirl]

Question: .... Wouldn't you think the dentist would LOVE cash and give me more of a discount then a person with insurance ?

Thanks for reading.

As a former medical office manager and insurance biller, I can answer that one for you. (Mind you, I don't agree with this,...I just know why) Most docs have a contract with each individual insurance company whose policies they accept. Most of those contracts forbid giving discounts to patients paying cash. This is not to say that some docs don't give those discounts anyway, but many will not risk losing insurance contracts.

And as for their prices, most offices find the high average paid by the main insurances that they accept and set that as their fee.

The reasoning behind both of these is that if an insurance company finds out that a doc accepted less for any procedure than what that insurance company pays him or her, the company will then try to drop ALL future payments by that percentage.

IMO, this is huge part of the problem with our health care system. It is not letting doctors be competative, even if they wanted. I think if these clauses went away, prices for uninsured cash patients would drop significantly. It would also let the docs actually set their prices rather than being "bullied" by insurance companies.

[generic]

I've always gone to the dentist every 6 months. I don't have dental insurance, so I pay for it myself. I just had to have a root canal and a crown it cost me almost $2,500 (which I had to put on my credit card). I feel your pain.

[tay666]

Wow, that is strange.
The dentist I use charges less for patients without insurance.
Plus he gives a discount if you pay in full at the time of your visit, as opposed to making payments.

And around here, it is about $120 to have a tooth extraction done.

[toys2cool]

Wow, that is strange.
The dentist I use charges less for patients without insurance.
Plus he gives a discount if you pay in full at the time of your visit, as opposed to making payments.

And around here, it is about $120 to have a tooth extraction done.

yup same here

[ramsey37]

George