FWIW, I had a root canal done on Monday. I have no dental insurance.

[old mark]

This was just the first visit - I have to go back just before Thanksgiving to get the permanenet filling in it.

Without the crown the cost will be $1,025. It took the dentist a little under 2 hours,and most of the prep and final work - including the temporary medicated filling-was done by a technician.

I think that is an outrage, and I have no idea what someone with no money would have done - my whole jaw was swollen and I was in constant pain. I don't think anyone could just live with that.


mark

[Dreamer Tatum]

1. Howmuch do you think it should have cost? nt

[librechik]

2. my root canal in July cost more than $4000, including the new bridge.

about $1000 was covered by insurance. Ouch. No way I could have lived with the disappearing tooth, though--

[madmax]

4. Oh boy, I revise my tonsillectomy post to 15k nt

[madmax]

3. Wonder what a tonsillectomy costs?

Bet around 10k with same day proceedure, no ice cream and out the door.

[gateley]

6. A friend of mine's husband had some major heart stuff done, the bill? $250,000!

[HuckleB]

9. It's usually between $4 and 6K.

[madmax]

13. I'm keeping mine.

They've been with me for so long we're buddies ;)

I always wondered just how important it was to have them taken out. Or if ops such as these are the 'bread 'n butter' of some doctors. As Wills and Esate planning - maybe divorce are to Lawyers. :shrug:

[HuckleB]

24. I don't believe they're taken out for the fun of it.

[madmax]

27. C-Sections which are a bit more

dangerous were unnecessarily performed and bit too common. I believe it was the insurance companies that intervened on that.

Call me suspicious. I don't trust anyone I don't care how many alphabet letters are at the end of their surname. or you wear a robe and white colar - nada, ever. Life does that to ya. Not happy to feel this way but, it is what it is. :toast:

[HuckleB]

29. I'm not so sure that insurance companies have done anything about C-sections.

The last study I saw indicated that the rate in the US continued to rise.

Most people I know still have their tonsils, but if I was going through repeated infections that might be less likely to occur if my tonsils came out, I'd probably go with the operation.

Trust is one thing. Questioning things is fine. Still, looking at the actual evidence, and all of it, can help.

Cheers! :toast:

[BrklynLiberal]

5. I have not been to the dentist in so long that I cannot remember.

I can tell you that the last time I had dental coverage was in 2000...so it is probably 10 years.

[mediaman007]

11. Take care my friend, the most common thread among heart attack victims: poor dental care.

I read that you can increase you life expectancy by one year, just by flossing once a day.

[BrklynLiberal]

28. Well..I do floss...and brush very thoroughly a few times a day...

Maybe I will be able to get to a dentist before I lose ALL my teeth...someday.

[old mark]

12. Mine was in 2003 - when I still had insurance....nt

[gmoney]

7. someone with no money would pay $50 to have someone yank the tooth

and get a $10 prescription for antibiotics probably. Not a great solution, but sadly, it's what happens.

[HuckleB]

8. I'm getting a crown (no root canal) done, right now.

With insurance, which doesn't cover much, it will be more than $800.

It's not cheap.

[leftyladyfrommo]

32. Can you find a dental school to go to.

That's what I do. I can't afford a regular dentist. I think my cost is just about 1/3.

[gateley]

10. I had cuettage (tooth scraping!) performed by a periodontist who actually

had the space in the medical building my dad had when he was practicing medicine. $900. I said, man, my dad used to deliver babies for less than that!

[madmax]

16. One tooth?? nt

[gateley]

20. Ha - no, but I didn't make that clear. I think it was just uppers or lowers, don't

think both.

That Periodontist retired very young, not surprisingly.

[madmax]

21. I thought that was a bit high

I had both top and bottom done. OUCH!! and more OUCH!! I believe he retired young, some make the big bucks and some just love their work. I continued my dental care with the later after the first one did the initial torture and made the big bucks. ;)

[WhiteTara]

14. my friend pulled his own tooth

so that's one way to do it.

[madmax]

15. Algondones Mexico - Dental work dirt cheap

Top of the line machines, lab, etc. Dentists trained in US, speak English have drivers to take you from your hotel to office and back. Across the bordr from Yuma, AZ.

Have contacted them and am planning to have implants done in the spring. Implants there approx. cost 4k for same work here 13k.

[wilt the stilt]

17. after the tooth is pulled

it takes 3 months before it is ready for the implant. I am having it done right now. one tooth- $4,000.

[madmax]

22. I'll have them pulled here and put in there.

I know - it's so expensive here.

My 40 year old son who had to have all his teeth removed wanted implants. He told me about a new type of 'implants'. They're dentures but, they are mounted on posts. They can be removed for cleaning but supposedly don't flop up and down like dentures. Not as much as implants but, not really cheap. I think he said like 4k. I didn't ask if that was for top and botton or one.

[Bobbieo]

25. Concur with madmax - live in Yuma and my dentist is in Algodones,

He is the best!!!!

[madmax]

26. Put the coffe pot on

lol j/k ;)

[DURHAM D]

18. Sounds right to me. My last root canal was $1200.

[Warpy]

19. People with no money get cheap antibiotics and the tooth pulled

That's why people with no money are getting gap toothed.

It's just another example of how Americans have been beggared over the last 40 years.

[madmax]

23. You nailed it Warpy

Have seen this happening with friends who are mortified to smile. It's a damn friggen shame that replacing a tooth is so costly that the ripple effect causes so much more damage. And then...

[Historic NY]

30. $950 and it isnt even gold, tooth broke after cleaning.........

I'm losing faith in my Dentist he bought it from my long term Dentist of 30+ yrs. I don't have insurance either, 2 days before the cleaning & x-ray was $160. I was lucky no real pain he gets an "A" in that department. They would have taken it in payments but I put it on my Credit card. I checked AARP insurance which would cost about $38-53 something a month would have paid 50%. So even with insurance it would have cost as much if not more.

[old mark]

31. Many years ago, I had 2 implants (post and crown) installed, for

around $1000 each...both of them broke off. One cracked right off when I was eating French bread. The other just came loose and fell off. I had both the roots removed and now have dentures for the gaps, and am considering new dentures next year...can't afford them any more this year.

mark

[Codeine]

33. A root canal without a crown

will almost always break in a year or two. The tooth gets too brittle without that important blood supply.

I just had a root canal done Thursday, my first ever. Even WITH insurance it's $505 with the crown.