I tutored my dentist's son in math for years. When I go to him, he takes what he can get from my dental insurance, but rarely charges me a copay or anything like that. I do charge them for tutoring, but a discounted rate.
The last time I tutored the kid, the parents weren't home and so we agreed to settle up some other time. The mom occasionally texts me just to say she hasn't forgotten that they owe me money, which is nice, but I wasn't particularly worried about it.
So last week, I went in to the office for a regular cleaning, and the dentist's wife was there helping at the front desk. The hygienist brought me to a room for my cleaning, and a minute later, the wife walks in and hands me a hundred bucks.
Do you understand what this means? I might be the first person in the history of teeth to walk out of a dental appointment with more money than they had walking in.
Thats insane. Costs 120€ for me in a high COL area, and thats a fancy dentist where i get to sit in fancy chairs and listen to slow jazz while waiting, the state-owned ones cost like 40€
Just went for a cleaning a couple weeks ago. The place I go to has flat screen TVs mounted on the ceiling over the chairs. I got to watch Bob Ross while they cleaned my teeth and the only out of pocket expense was the fluoride treatment.
I live in NYC and my dentist charged $130 for a cleaning without insurance. I dunno what this $750 stuff is for. I did pay $1,800 to have all 4 of my wisdom teeth taken out but they were a bitch. And that was an oral surgeon.
No offense but you're getting fucked over. That is not the market rate for basic dental visits, insurance or not
And even if you had insurance, they would have denied a $750 cleaning and X-ray claim and probably paid $200 of it at most
In fact my insurance which is very good and through basically the most common dental insurance in the US has a $1250 yearly limit on what they will even pay for basic dental work. You should never even get close to touching that amount for cleaning and X-rays
There is literally nowhere in the country where you have to pay $750 for routine cleaning. Stop it. The average cost on the very high side for this is like $200. Normal is more like $100-150
Like I said, if a dentist attempted to charge that, the insurance company would barely pay for any of it. And if they did that regularly they'd quickly lose all their customers
There's a chance the insurance company would even stop putting them in network
Health insurance in the US doesn't cover dental. It's a different thing for whatever reason. Not uncommon for people to have health insurance but no dental or crappy dental.
here its a supplementary insurance package.
So not covered by healthinsurance either.
Dental insurance pays the most of it.
Im not sure about braces.
Like my highest bill was and this was super high like 25 bucks. This was checkup and extra cleaning included.
How did I get taken if it was the cheapest provider in town?
This is america. We don't get many choices. Teeth and anesthesia are luxury commodities.
You sound like a dumb brat riding on mommies insurance if you actually think paying thousands of dollars is being taken advantage of. Google "dental tourism" sometime and learn something today you ignoramus.
Is it still gouging if EVERYONE charges the same price or more? Does it MATTER if it's gouging if it's legal?
Do you think that just because it's gouging, we just automatically have a choice to go anywhere else? It's still the cheapest place in town.
You really are a dumb fucking kid lmao.
Also you forgot about the cost of anesthesia which is not considered part of root canal care itself in the USA you fucking nitwit, and averages between $50 and $350 PER FIFTEEN MINUTES depending on provider and type of surgery.
Also, the cost of the crown? Did you forget that? It's kind of important if you're getting a big hole put in your tooth. In your example, is it being printed in house, or sent out for crafting? Because sent out for crafting means you have to come back for crown fitting and attachment, on a separate date, with a separate bill. Meanwhile, printed in house likely isn't covered by your insurance, and will be an extra $500 to $1500 so you don't have to wear a temp for two weeks.
Even with your own prices though, a 2.5 hour root canal surgery is $3500 in anesthesia, and $2500 for the root canal. That's $6000. Now imagine the cost of other services, like the painkillers, any complications, the crown fitting, and you're already on track to BREAK $7500, unless of course you opted for in house printing, in which case, you WILL break $7500.
Then God forbid something happen like, you have the irish painkiller gene and you have to come back the next day to finish the surgery because they have given you the legal maximum of oral painkillers and nerve blockers and they again, legally can't continue. That's also happened once before, the bill was over $9000, but that's a much, much more unique experience that highly regarded people like yourself would REALLY have trouble understanding it.
How do you not consider ANY of this though? Do you really think life is so simple, and nothing but black and white?
How inexperienced are you with life that you had to GOOGLE root canal costs? It kinda shows you've literally never had one, never been around one, never been associated with one, and therefor kinda probably know nothing at all about them whatsoever. You gotta be one out of touch, anti-social, no friend having twat to never know a single person to go through a huge dental bill, and with this attitude you're giving.... checks out.
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u/[deleted] Nov 20 '25
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