By your own later admission, this initial statement was a lie.
Patients frequently lie about the treatment they supposedly received. Everyone likes to claim the “victim” mantle and claim they were ripped off by some rich greedy health professional. The most frequent lie I hear is: “I went to dentist Dr. X and he charged me $200 just to look at me, and didn’t do a thing to treat my problem.”
So I call Dr. X only rot find out he spent 30 minutes trying to diagnose a complicated problem with various tests, took several x-rays and/or a 3D cone beam scan to figure out what was wrong, and prepare the patient for the costs and time to treat the problem the next visit.
My dental insurance ended when my husband retired in June 2024. At 65 Medicare does not give dental coverage. I did not want a Medicare disadvantage plan. Of course, 2 months later an older crown I had broke. My dentist (in SF Bay Area) quote was $2100. They also told me my next cleaning with xrays and exam would be $500. OMG, I could not pay that much. Visiting family in San Diego, we attended a 40th birthday party. I asked around if anyone had tried going into Mexico for dental care. Two of the people there had done it and were satisfied. So I took their recommendation and did my crown there for $550 and a few months later a cleaning for $120. I had full mouth xrays and a 3D skull image. I am more than happy with the work. No issues. I will keep using them. I noticed most of the clientele were Americans. They all speak English too. The biggest pain is getting back in the US when the line can be long. I park on US side and walk over, then Uber to the dentist for $4.
Good for you. If you had had a metal crown on a back tooth it would not have broken.
There are some good dentists in Mexico. In all my years of practice, I have had exactly one patient who got good treatment there. Very troublesome is most Mexican dentists don’t have a clue what alloys are in the metals they use.
Very few do silver fillings or gold crowns anymore. Those are the longest-lasting restorations you can have.
Many implants done in Mexico do not have parts support in the US. Just had a patient who went to Mexico and had an implant case totally messed up. She has no legal recourse.
Why did you have a 3D skull scan unless you had a failing root canal or needed an implant?
The prices you quoted from California are incredibly high.
Like I said earlier I paid $2254 for two crowns. All inclusive, no hidden fees. I’m going to use this new dentist here in Houston for everything. If I pay him a $199 a year membership fee, I get:
2 cleanings and annual exams
1 Panorex or FMX series of x-rays
1 set annual bitewing x-rays
2 flouride treatments (unless RFK Jr. outlaws these)
1 emergency exam with x-ray
20% off dental treatments
I’m not going to Mexico. Maybe for dentures someday. Nothing invasive. No cutting or dilling on me.
These in-house insurance (discount) plans are becoming a popular alternative to dental “insurance” plans, which are very inefficient. We have to be very careful with them as to not violate state insurance laws.
By the way, unless a patient has a track record with decay as an adult, x-rays once a year is probably excessive. The ADA now recommends them at no particular interval, but based on disease susceptibility. Likewise, fluoride treatments probably unnecessary unless the patient has dry mouth and/or gastric reflux.
It is so sad that people who need dental work cannot afford it. There is nothing worse than tooth pain. I am looking into getting dentures and it is overwhelming knowing where to start, what to look for, which dentist to go to and how not to get overcharged. What advice do you have when it comes to dentures and finding the right doctor. We have Refresh Dental and Aspen Dental where I live, what is your option of these box stores?
First of all, why are you investigating full dentures? Some teeth are better than no teeth. Partial dentures are easier to wear than full dentures.
Why would you even think of going to scummy dental chains owned by hedge funds, instead of private practices owned by honest and competent dentists??? Do you believe every lying ad you see on TV? Look up these sleazy chains on PissedConsumer.com. Aspen has been sanctioned by FOUR state attorneys-general for its dishonesty.
I could write a book how government makes dental care more expensive. Lately, our state of Georgia has ordered us to have labs test our water once every quarter and report the results or face big fines. You think nonsense like this doesn’t increase overhead?
Today I just finished a set of full dentures on an elderly gentleman. My lab fees were $1250. I spend 6 patient appointments and a lot of time in my lab on the project. I average 2 to 3 adjustment appointments afterwards. You think I could charge a couple thousand for great dentures like I made? I must pay my receptionist and assistant good salaries, and I have got to make a living as well. There is no way to make such treatment “affordable.” I recently tried a 3D printed denture to try to save time, and the result was not very impressive. Health care is labor intensive, so it is expensive!
Patients think fabricating good partial and full dentures is a piece of cake. But I have been doing it for 47 years, and it is still one of the hardest tasks I do. Your chance of having a fresh young graduate doing it right at some sleazy corporate chain clinic is about as likely as Hailey’s Comet returning to earth ahead of schedule.
If the mods allow me to post it, there are useful articles on how to save money on dental care at www.KimHenryDental.Wordpress.com. I especially recommend the articles, “Two Patients Lose Money Trying to Save Money,” and “Corporate Dentistry- The New Oral Cancer.”
It is not my teeth, I have advanced gum disease and have spent thousands on care. I personally could not take better care of my teeth. My uncle was a dentist and all of his brothers and sisters and their children ended up with dentures. It runs in the family. I am personally tired of constant pain and loosing teeth. The tooth pain greatly interferes with my life and the wait to get into the dentist to get it pulled in misery. I just recently started considering dentures and am trying to understand the entire process. I am looking into local dentists that do dentures but there are not many. I asked about the dental chains to get your opinion, and I had a feeling they were probably not a good idea. Thank you for the link. I will look at it.
@Henrius my wife is now using the high quality, moderate cost local dentist here in Houston. His bid to replace her aging partial with a full crown was $1000 less than her old dentist. My two crowns are still excellent. It does pay to shop around, and maybe instead of flying to Mexico people in high cost places like NYC, Chicago, LA, SF, should fly to see my dentist! If someone wants to know, I can send his name in a private message. Not much to see in Houston as a tourist, though. Weather is nice in the winter.
Not sure what you mean. You cannot replace a partial denture with a crown.
Most all dentists who offer cheap partials and dentures and crowns use Chinese labs. I refuse to do that. One never knows about the content in the metal.
You are right about professional fees varying around the country. I am amazed by fees in California and New York. However, the problem with going to another state is the same as going to another country: how will you get any post-op problems treated?
It is true- in patients with genetic predisposition to hyperinflammation, saving teeth long-term is very hard. In fact, better to lose them earlier just to save more bone. Implants are very risky in this patient population also.
Few young dentists are trained in school to do dentures well anymore. It is not very profitable and the number of patients with no teeth have declined. You will have to look for an older dentist. A Prosthodontist is a sure bet, but will be more expensive.
The best way is still extract all teeth, allowing at least 3 months for healing, before starting the impression sequence. Otherwise they will need a reline in no time at all. Making good upper and lower dentures takes AT LEAST 5 appointments, and cost about $4000 in my neck of the woods. Don’t even think of going to joints like so-called Affordable Dentures.
The first question out of most denture patients’ mouth is “How cheap can you make them?” This is a a grave error. To make them cheaply, critical shortcuts must be made, which affects the final result. If I charged what my labor is really worth, I would charge $8000 for a set of dentures- twice what my current fee is.
I’m probably using the wrong terminology. Earlier, she had several filings in the tooth which had to be replaced, the new dentist said, “Nah. not doing that, we risk the entire tooth, let’s cover it all with a crown”.
That makes more sense. The sad part is, almost nobody does partial gold crowns on back anymore, the most conservative and durable type of crown. They just whack the whole tooth down and do a milled zirconia crown, which has the lowest lab cost. Met a recent dental graduate last week who had NEVER done a cast metal crown!
20 years ago it was probably a porcelain fused to metal crown. You had to whack the tooth down a minimum of 1.5mm in all dimensions. Milled zirconia today requires a minimum of 1mm thickness, but we have more trouble with the coming off because zirconia is so hard to bond to.
It is a shame that the old techniques using conservative partial gold crowns are practically unknown to young dentists now.
Visit third world dentists and physicians like I have and what do you see? Tiny office spaces that would never meet ADA requirements here. Even our bathrooms have to be enormous. More rented space means higher rent and utilities which means higher fees. 1000 square foot US dental offices used to be common as late as the 1970s. Not anymore!
I got a cavity on my last tooth just before the wisdom tooth. I could feel something back there but actually thought it was my wisdom tooth coming in. Well finally one day I actually looked at it, luckily I found of those dentist mirror things, and saw it was an actual cavity. Through my research it seemed like gold would be the best, and seems you agree. Would silver fillings be the next best?
I was also thinking just maybe get the tooth pulled and hope the wisdom tooth can step up and replace it. Also my real question about it all is about the pricing with no insurance. I can pay cash, so that isn’t a problem but wouldn’t my price be cheaper than the price given to someone with insurance? I assume it would be somewhat cheaper not having to deal with the crooked middle man the insurance companies. It also seems like I’m a few hours away from you so it might could be a possibility.
Why would you ever think about extracting a second molar? No, the wisdom tooth will not just move over into perfect position beside the first molar. It will tip over, trap food, and screw up your bite. I see it every week.
I see so many damaged 2nd molars because hardheaded patients did not get their wisdom teeth out as recommended. Have to do many root canals on 2nd molars due to damage from wisdom teeth, as a matter of fact.
There is more force on second molars than any other teeth in the mouth. Plastic fillings do not last long there. Gold filings are the best, but most patients compromise with silver amalgam because of the cost. Silver fillings provide the lowest cost per year of useful life, which can easily be 40 years.
Some dentists discount for cash patients and some do not. The reason I don’t sign on as a prostituting provider with any insurance crime syndicates is I believe it is highly immoral to charge a PPO patient less than a cash patient who pays it all!
When searching for a new dentists, here are three important questions to ask:
Do you still do silver amalgam fillings?
Do you still do cast gold partial and full crowns?
Do you use rubber dam the majority of the time when doing fillings?
If they answer yes to all three, you probably found a good dentist. Most likely he or she will be older.