Second time going to the dentist in my life. Just a little confused.

Joined
Jul 24, 2011
Messages
1
Yeah, so, as the title explains, today I went to the dentist for the second time in my life. I'm twenty one and the only time I ever went to the dentist was when I was in early grade school and that whole time frame was a little messed up- anyways, long life story that I wont go into.
So, I've never really went to the dentist because my family is poor as dirt and I grew up in homeless shelters. By the time I went to the dentist he did so very much work on me, but it wasn't the greatest work. Two of the teeth he fixed with fillings weren't properly done and though the tooth looked great on the outside, it rotted through on the inside.
Well, years of having no way of taking care of my teeth have left me where I stand today.

So I had already decided that when I got money I'd go to the dentist and start fixing things. Out of pocket. So I went to the dentist and I need 9 to 10 root canals, tons of fillings, a sideways wisdom tooth removed and other fun things.
(Honestly when I was the X-ray of my sideways tooth I laughed so hard that I spat out the X-ray thing.)

What I'm getting at, is that the lady laid out the numbers for me. $10,000 for my top row of teeth. $12,000 for the bottom row. This didn't surprise me. With all the decay, the two broken teeth and cavities I wasn't too surprised. So I told her that I obviously don't have $22,000 to drop on my teeth, and for now I have $3,000. So she said we might be able to get a root canal on one tooth, and a filling. This left me reeling.
We were talking about my third molar on my left bottom side. The worst tooth in my mouth (and surprisingly, the only one causing me pain). But what I gathered from what she said, and what I've looked up online, a filling, well, a lot of filling would be under like, $600. So after my expression she told me that we can extract the third molar, root canal the second molar, and do this cleaning for that bottom section of my mouth for about $150 and later on we can pull up a wisdom tooth to replace the third molar.
She said she'd take $280 off the top leaving me with a payment of $3,060. She told me the pulling would cost $650 (I believe that number includes the bone grafting). So
Minus the tiny tiny cavity on the first molar, lets say $200, then take $650 off....

A root canal is $2,200?!

Off a random dental website "Expect the cost of a root canal treatment to be about $400 to $600 per front tooth and about $500 to $800 for a molar."
See the lady told me that they have specialists at the office. (And its a pretty nice- though highly anti-privacy office.) And that I don't have to pay extra for these specialists. Maybe they jack their prices up to cover the specialists?

Either way, is there anyway I can get my X-rays and pictures and cost sheets from them and take them to a different dentist? Is this price accurate? Or what? I'm so very confused.
 
Joined
Jul 26, 2011
Messages
2
it all sounds a little fishy!

I am person with a vast amount of knowlege on dental matters. Anyway, some of what you are saying sounds a little fishy. There is no reason to do a bone graft after extracting a third molar! It is simply not needed. Your third molar is a wisdom tooth. The only time you need a bone graft, is when your dentist is trying to preserve the bone in the area for a implant or perhaps a bridge (which is not always needed). Neither of these would ever be done to restore the loss of a third molar! So the extraction price is very high. In addition 2200$ dollars for a root canal therapy is extreamly high and extreamly questionable! even for a specialist. most specialist will charge at most 1200-1500$ for a complex root canal. If this is truly what they are quoting you, I would definatly go to a another dentist and ask for a comparaison. Do not give the new dental office the price quote, just the treament that is proposed. This will give you a very good idea if your previous office is being complelty straight forward with you. I hope this helps! Also look for a new youtube channel to be coming soon, that will be an educational video blog for dental patients to arm themsleves with dental knowledge so they dont get confused! It will go over how to read your own x-rays to how to choose a good dentist and other helpful topics.
 

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Joined
Aug 31, 2011
Messages
2
Tooth Issues

Hi Bluejay,

I agree that the dentist you saw sounds a little fishy. I've had a few root canals and crowns and they were all in the $700-1200 range. Given that you admittedly have a lot of dental issues, I wondered if you've considered going to a dental school clinic. Dental schools have clinics were students work on your teeth under the guidance of dentists, periodontists, etc. Not sure if it's completely free or whether you have to "pay for parts" or discounted. Given how much work you need and what it will cost, it might be a viable option for you. Good luck!!
 

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