# Dental cost



## PaulN (Mar 4, 2014)

I went to the dentist yesterday, and he tells me that I need a crown. The cost? $1691. I could buy 5 bags of triple stack corn for that and have change left over! How can one measly little tooth cost that much? It must be greed.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

No cash discount? Or is it a root canal and a crown? Either way at least my dentist offered that last time.

Larry


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## PaulN (Mar 4, 2014)

No root canal, just a crown. No mention of discounts. Even if it was 10% off, it's still too much for a little speck of porcelain.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

I'd check around,from what ive heard from family and friends there is quite a difference in what they charge.And quite a difference in how good they are.And higher priced doesn't necessarily mean they are better.


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## PaulN (Mar 4, 2014)

I know a few retirees that go south for the winter. As long as they're so close, they cross the border and go to Mexico for their dental work. It cost somewhere around 20% of what it would here in the states. When one lady came back home for the summer, she went to her regular dentist for a checkup. He told her that there was nothing wrong with the Mexican workmanship. He could very well have gotten his training here in the states. There are many more stories like this.


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## TJ Hendren (May 12, 2017)

Dental school is the most expensive of them all including MD and Vet. I knew a guy who's daughter went to dental school, he had to fork over 70K the first semester. They get it because people will pay it. I just plunked down 3200.00 for a bridge.


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## Palmettokat (Jul 10, 2017)

As insurance agent I sell dental insurance. Not normally a good buy for an individual but on a group plan can be even a great deal.

It is amazing the variance in dentist and their pricing. You have a right to ask pricing and should. If you want to learn more about a certain dentist go online and see if you can find a dental plan that has that dentist in it. Some will even show you the price they are getting that service with dentist in their network.

FYI had crown earlier this year, gold one, made in Mexico and total was less than $800. Was major crown. Dentist was fine with what my group insurance paid but he is a friend who I have done favors for as friend also.

Seriously shop the market just as you would for a piece of equipment.


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## KS John (Aug 6, 2018)

As stated, dental prices vary greatly, I would also suggest reading reviews online if they are available. I had one dentist I went to for a few years and they royally screwed up. Causing me several tooth infections and some bone loss before I went to another dentist. Check around.


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## Draft Horse Hay (May 15, 2014)

I was the foreman on a jury that convicted a dentist of Medicaid fraud a year or so ago. He was billing them for work not performed, personally handled his own records (not his staff) etc. Hired one of the better defense attorneys in the state etc. We labored over making the right call and then ...

.... after the trial was over, we found out that there were 36 instances of fraud but we were only allowed to consider/know about 2 that we convicted on. AND - this SOB had been previously caught extracting healthy teeth and prescribing pain killers to a kid who was obviously using it as a way to get opiates. Finally got caught when the pharmacy called and mentioned that his patient had just picked up a prescription 2 days earlier from the ER. The dentist didn't care. Did he go to jail or even get fined? NOPE - he got a sound finger wag from the state dental board (made up of dentists) and a short restriction on writing prescriptions for narcotics.

Dentists --- just some guys with tiny drills,


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