Dental Cost on the Rise.

[GoingDown]

There is always a coupon or a Groupon for cleaning for 40-50$
Sadly even that is a luxury for us now. And the local dental school wants MORE money than that. Not to mention, the one time we did it-- it took HOURS!!! so be prepared. Literally, hours. The students needed to be checked every five minutes or so. Major PITA.

Yep, I have to wait hours every time I use the sliding fee clinic at the Maricopa County Hospital, and every time I go to a dental school clinic, but I have had some significant work done for very little money at all, so it is worth the wait in my opinion.

[GoingDown]

So much for American exceptionalism I keep hearing about.

I think it is great.

I may have to wait a few hours, but by the end of the day, my teeth are fixed up and I'm ready to go again, and I didn't have to pay much for it. Not bad, in my opinion. This is a great place to live.

[keepsmiling]

Yep, I have to wait hours every time I use the sliding fee clinic at the Maricopa County Hospital, and every time I go to a dental school clinic, but I have had some significant work done for very little money at all, so it is worth the wait in my opinion.

Ok, curious to know- what is your local dental school/clinic charging? I've never been able to get a straight answer here from the low cost clinic.
I've been lucky and not needed major work. For a cleaning and checkup for over 50 bucks, it was a losing proposition to go to the school and tie up not only three hours, but pay more for the privilege than using a discount coupon with a "real" dds. For more serious work it might be worth looking into.

[GoingDown]

Ok, curious to know- what is your local dental school/clinic charging? I've never been able to get a straight answer here from the low cost clinic.
I've been lucky and not needed major work. For a cleaning and checkup for over 50 bucks, it was a losing proposition to go to the school and tie up not only three hours, but pay more for the privilege than using a discount coupon with a "real" dds. For more serious work it might be worth looking into.

The sliding fee scale clinic at Maricopa County Hospital (not the dental schools) only charged me $5 to have my teeth cleaned. You have to be prepared to show them your income records for the last month, and the most recent federal and state tax returns, and then they base your fee on that information.

The last time I went to a dental school for a teeth cleaning, it cost me $63. Still cheaper than going to a regular dentist.

My point is this... if anyone reading this is puting off dental work because they think they can't afford it, DON'T! Your teeth are too precious to neglect.

Swallow your pride and plan on spending the whole day if necessary to get your teeth back in good shape.

[Floridagail]

Update, I found a dental plan that has no preexisting clause, accepts florida clients, I can go Nov 1 for treatment.
with huge discounts for crowns and bridges etc. I must use their dentist in HMO network. I am not happy about that, but have no choice but to give it a try. THe cleanings and xrays are free so the cost of the insurance will more than cover the free cleaning. I can only hope the dentist are good. My dentist gave me very little discount for cash so I really have no choice. I read some reviews mostly good, a few negatives. We will see. They cover Florida, Calif and Texas so I got lucky.
A friend of hubby business suggested the company.

[sbatman]

I theoretically have good dental insurance, and I need two crowns. The dentist office encouraged me to start for $300 down per crown and the dental insurance will figure our how much more I have to pay as my "patient responsibility". The receptionist said that I need to be very careful so the front tooth won't literally break in half while waiting for the crown, since "it sometimes takes weeks for the insurance to come through". My insurance requires preauthorization for just about anything more than a cleaning. I don't have $2077 for the full rate, sitting round, so I said I would wait. I'm glad I waited, because the insurance company denied the prior authorization request on both crowns. I'm very glad to have skipped having the crowns while waiting for the preautoriazation. After the insurance denied the claims, then the dental office said I could try Carecredit, I told her with a house foreclosure and a recent bankruptcy, there was no way to I would qualify. So, the situation, now, is that I have to wait for my cracked front tooth to literally fall apart and the other tooth that needs a new crown has enough "leakage" and decay around it so that I''ll need a root canal when I finally hopefully get it authorized. Incidentally, this is a US government Federal Employee dental plan.

But if all else fails, I luckily have the option of going to Mexico for dental care There are a few good dentist in Nogales.

[Floridagail]

Sbatman
That is awful, I would try calling the insurance myself and appealing it. I have had luck in past when I had insurance before retiring. I also got approved for Carecredit right after filing bkptcy 2009, I applied online and got 1000. I tried last year to get it raised , but they would not raise it.

[sbatman]

Floridagail,
Thank you for your suggestions, but I have already appealed in vain. When my from tooth breaks or when I start having more severe symptoms, I will go back to the dentist and try again. I'm a nurse and I've worked as a telephonic "advice nurse",you know the nurse that is listed on the back of your insurance card? How the system works is that they deny, then if the patient doesn't like the decision, he appeals the denial. Then it's denied again, and the insurance company bumps it up to another level, all the way to the "doctor" or the "dentist" on staff, who often doesn't look at the medical evidence and he/she rubber-stamps and denies it again. Only then, can you go outside the system and appeal at the state level, which rules in the patient's claim about 60% of the time. By that time the patient is dead, the patient's cancer has metastasized, requiring huge amounts of care and money. Also, then, the insurance can often "kick the can don the alley" and hope the patient gets new insurance, or loses his/her job, along with his/her medical insurance, because they can't afford COBRA, often because of the exorbitant COBRA premiums (check the cost of COBRA is for you who still have real jobs and health insurance-it's scary) price or all the money they've spent that hasn't been covered by their former insurance company. Most people give up at the first or second level. That's what the companies are counting on and it save barrels of money. So, as I said, if I can't get it fixed in the system, I can probably get it competently fixed in Mexico, the whole thing, for less cost that my "patient responsibility" would be with my dental insurance company. We have Medical tourism here in the USA. It's mostly buses of going to Tijuana because they have no or inadequate medical insurance.

And, there are whole sites where the docs/dentists are rated, so a patient doesn't have to go to a "pig in a poke". Bad doctors and dentists in the medical tourist industry are rated by patients, so it's important that they maintain their reputation. The only caveat is that American doctors/dentists will often not fix problems that crop up. So you have to lie and say you had the work done in the USA, or go back to your medical tourism doctor/dentist. No problem for us who live near the border (90miles for me), but a real hassle if you live farther away.

Besides, I refuse to get back into debt (Carecredit) to fix something that should be paid for by my dental insurance. Now, if I wanted a "boob job", Carecredit might be of interest...

[keepsmiling]

Re sbatman's post^:
Since I read Grisham's The Rainmaker (anyone remember the "stupid letter"?... "You must be stupid stupid stupid") which is about exactly this... I have always thought that might be the way many insurance companies work in real life.
How scary is that?
For those who still think everything is fine with our health insurance "system".....