Dental Charges rant

[Dodger 0]

I?ve just had some dental work done ? three sessions which was one root canal, one seemingly useless session to scrape out some more of the gunk in the canal and replace the temporary filling and finally, one white filling because my dentist totally talked me out of having an amalgam filling. The cost of this (I?m an NHS patient) was ?228 which I think is a bit steep. I didn?t have enough money on me to pay for it so I paid ?95 and promised to pay the rest later but now I?m considering witholding payment. The other thing I should mention is that all this work was only necessary because two years ago I had exactly the same treatment on exactly the same tooth but my dentist (same surgery, different dentist) didn?t do it properly. Does anyone know if there is a body I can complain to or a standardised pricing scale for dentistry on the NHS. Apparantly white fillings arent covered by NHS but I wasn?t told this. Was I ripped off? Am I within my rights to withold payment if I wasnt given a proper quote beforehand. Does anyone else hate dentists?

[thablkpanda 0]

Does anyone else hate dentists?

The rest of the story flew over my head, but i got that part. I'm in the USA, and never visited anywhere where they use the euro, or whatever that symbol is (sorry for my stupidity) I despise the dental charges myself though, I can't bare to reach out for my file cabinet and find my last payment to help justify that, but I agree.. well over $200 is what I last paid, for some work I could've done myself (I'm no dentist, but caulk and duct tape will go a long way) for at MOST $20. lol


Panda

[cragllo 0]

thablkpanda, its not the euro (my keyboard dont disply the symbol)It is the Pound sign ? 'shift and 3' on this british setup computer of mine.

[thablkpanda 0]

Oh.. sorry, well Like i said, I'm in the USA, keep it real, and the Shift+3 would give me this '#' which is a number sign (duh) so I never knew that british computers were setup differently than ours (I'm really freaking stupid now) Anything else I should know? And what's the euro? lol..

[randycori 0]

Ive just had some dental work done three sessions which was one root canal, one seemingly useless session to scrape out some more of the gunk in the canal and replace the temporary filling and finally, one white filling because my dentist totally talked me out of having an amalgam filling. The cost of this (Im an NHS patient) was Ł228 which I think is a bit steep. I didnt have enough money on me to pay for it so I paid Ł95 and promised to pay the rest later but now Im considering witholding payment. The other thing I should mention is that all this work was only necessary because two years ago I had exactly the same treatment on exactly the same tooth but my dentist (same surgery, different dentist) didnt do it properly. Does anyone know if there is a body I can complain to or a standardised pricing scale for dentistry on the NHS. Apparantly white fillings arent covered by NHS but I wasnt told this. Was I ripped off? Am I within my rights to withold payment if I wasnt given a proper quote beforehand. Does anyone else hate dentists?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hello - by the way - I'm not a dentist, but consult for them.

Office staff - in order to run a dental office need receptionist, billing person, computer & software to bill, dental assistant, replacement of equipment costs, etc, etc...that office would probably need to collect no less than $250 / hour in order to survive - period. No joke (well okay, lets start at $100 / hour absolute total minimum or the dentist is paying to see you)).

Root canal - 1 hour

Prep - cost of materials, drills have to be replaced (not reused)- expect $20 per drill

Titanium post - 1-3 based on roots

temp crown & prep

Real crown - porcelain - lab costs - wholesale usually $200-300 per crown...

 

By the way, amalgum is an inert Mercury mix. Mercury is so toxic they don't allow schoolkids to even touch it because it can leak into your body and give you mercury poisoning...and yet, they still allow amalgums to be made

 

Mercury can stop "energy" flow in the body - don't put amalgums in your teeth - period.

 

I'm doing research on dental care and heart disease...there is a connection that is real - regular care can save your life. Teeth cleaning is big. Cost for hygienist is $30-$40/hour, plus benefits = $50-100/hour for dentist to pay them.

 

Have fun, pay the bill, become the dentist, live long and prosper, stop eating and you won't have to worry about dental decay, get the teeth pulled and don't get them fixed - used to work well in the wild west - get used to eating porrage...