Disney or Dentist?? :(

[Blessed_wth_Triplets]

I'm sooo upset. Just as we were about to book a trip I went to the dentist for a routine cleaning. Hadn't had x-rays in 3 years...had them...found a TON of cavities (this is not new to me...had a lot as a kid and work on all of my back teeth)...and walked out with a treatment plan totalling $5600!!! I'm in shock...I actually started crying right there when I saw the number. Some "words" in there include multi-surface composites, porcelin onlays, crowns/caps, possible root canals.

I feel so stuck. I mean, I have to get treatment and get the decay out...I just can't imagine spending that money!! And yes, I'm going to get at least two other opinions, but these dentist are VERY well known and known as some of the best in our area.

Any advice...I guess I'm just venting a little.

 

[iwrbnd]

That happened to me when I found out how much braces will cost for our kids! $3-5,000 each and they all need them!

Sorry to hear about your cavities! Pray for your children to have straight teeth!

Oh, btw, if you can't do both you should take care of your teeth. Disney will always be there but your teeth may not be!

 

[fakereadhed]

Can you get a second opinion and another quote? For something that extensive I would.

Really hope this turns out well for you!

 

[chrisann]

Does all the work have to be done immediately or can you do a little at a time? I'm thinking from a pain and wallet point of view! Good Luck!!

 

[DisneyShannon]

When I first got dental insurance which sucks and will hardly pay for anything. I had two cavities and they cost 5 hundred dollars. Than this past year I had one and it was 200.00 dollars. I would try to find another doctor but The sucky insurance wont pay for another dentist. good luck to you.

 

[DisneyShannon]

Make sure to keep the paper work from where you paid and you can claim the dental work on next years taxes.

 

[minnie1928]

I'd ask whether or not it all needs to be done right away. I had a similar treatment plan drafted a few years ago, and I still haven't had it completed. I did get some crowns (love them, they look so pretty & white), but haven't finished everything that was in the plan.

 

[tekoa]

I am sorry to hear this. The dentist is such a rip off. I recently had a cleaning with x-rays. They found that I needed one small filling to the tune of $304.00. It took her all of 15 minutes to complete the work. I have had many root canals and crowns in the past with no dental insurance other than that they will pay for 2 cleanings a year no other work. So yes I feel your pain and am sorry. See if you can do a little at a time if you are not in pain.
Best of luck to you.

 

[teacherlisa1978]

Oh, do I ever feel your pain...DH went to the dentist today and needs a crown, a new filling, and an old one replaced. To top off the fact that we got an estimate for our dog's dental cleaning/lipoma removal to the tune of $860 this afternoon...and a $460 bill for lab work I had done in December. And yet...we're still doing our summer Disney trip. Life happens. You have to balance out enjoying it with being responsible. We're scrimping on everything else this year and DH and I are both picking up extra work on the side from our regular jobs to make it all work out. And I'm with the PP who suggested seeing if you could spread it out a bit...although I tend to want to get it all over in one shot and not have to worry about it anymore.

Good luck to you-days like this are really hard!

 

[santa's surpriz]

Do you have a really good dental school near home? Sometimes you can get the work done there for a fraction of the cost of a dentist office. It's quality care, the students cannot do the work until they are ready. My niece goes to a university in Utah and needed emergency dental work done, she did not have dental insurance and was a broke college student. She got a root canal and few cavities filled for a couple hundred dollars. That was probably three years ago and she has not had problems since.

 

[jodim]

I agree with the PP's, get a second opinion/quote.

We live near a University, so we get most of our dental work done there. I had a full mouth X-Ray and a cleaning for $75.

I have horrible teeth, and I am constantly having to have them worked on, so I am lucky we have this available to us.

 

[carmie3377]

And yes, I'm going to get at least two other opinions, but these dentist are VERY well known and known as some of the best in our area.

Sorry to hear about this. But yes, please get at least one other opinion. This is what happened to me:

I went for my cleaning at a new dentist and was told that I had 9 cavities! Even though I've had issues with my teeth since they came in, I was totally shocked. However, I knew other people that used this dentist and I had no reason not to believe her. With insurance, my cost would still be several hundred dollars. I went ahead and had it scheduled as I wanted to get it over with because we were planning to get pregnant and they suggested no dental work in first trimester. Anyway, we got pregnant earlier than planned so I postponed my treatment until the second trimester.

During my first trimester, Hurricane Katrina hit and her office was flooded. She didn't know when she was going to reopen so I scheduled the work to be done where my mom worked while I was out of state at Christmas. They took new xrays and guess how many cavities I had? 2!!!! And the first dentist said I had 9! Not only would my insurance and I had been out all that extra money, what about the discomfort of the work and the anxiety I would have endured. I hate shots in the mouth. But who doesn't.

This dentist eventually opened her practice back up but I was going no where near. She was trying to scam me and my insurance company. I just wish I could have gone back to have her actually point out on x-ray what she was intending on "fixing". But of course the x-rays were lost in the flood.

Sorry about the long response!!!

 

[finz2left]

Are you near a Univ. with a dental school? I lived neared Tufts dental in Boston and had work done for a song....would use one again in a heartbeat! The "real" prof/dentists oversaw everything and the rates were awesome!

 

[klynn]

How much is your portion after insurance pays? Do you have money in a health care spending account? If you have a few thousand in your spending account maybe you could use that and get done how ever much that would be. Next year put enough in your spending account to pay the for rest of the work.

 

[dreamin_disney]

i hate to say it but there are some dishonest dentist out there. I had a bad one . He told me i needed a crown and should go for the gold crown which cost more money. From the moment i walked in i felt weird. Then the next appoint i needed another crown and rootcanel. AS I sat there I noticed others were there for crowns too....hmmmm. Anyways I got a bad rootcanel, He sent me to his specialist who said i needed an apeticomy cut off part of the nerve. Stll discomfort. The dentist avoided me and had the spewcialist deal with me. Then almost a year later i was still dealing with the pain, so speecialist said he would need to go up through my pallette and go in. I said HECK NO! and went to a dentist my sis told me about. Well turned out the dentist had a bad reputation for doing crappy work, and a high dentist turn over.
My new dentist went in cleaned out the tooth, filled it , put a post in it and the crown. Thats was it no more pain. He said imagine a corndog with out the stick so it was sealed and the bacteria was floating around. I questioned the dentist about the gold crown and he said it's just more expensive and i would be fine with a regular crown. unfortunetly this dentist retired. If it wasnt for him I would have never gone back to any dentist. It took me time to relax because of my bad experince.

Since then I've heard several people mention dentist giving a list of un needed work. The more work the more $$ they get instead of honesty and long commited patients.


I even heard of a father and son dentist getting arrested for medical fruad. they would get people to round upo medical patients. Then they would give them $20 and do all kkinds of work they didnt need , then bill meddical lots of money.

I say if your not feeling discomfort then get a 2nd opinion, thAT was my mistake my tooth didnt hurt at all but the bad dentist said it was crack so it had to be redone and rootcanel. I'm happy with my new dentist but sure miss the one that retired.Good luck

 

[quasar4legs]

I have terrible teeth and have had mega ($$$$) dental work done over the last 20 years.
I would get another opinion/quote but I would have the dental work done before I did another vacation. Next time you get to Disney you want to be able to use those strong white chompers.

Hope you are feeling better soon.

Quasar

 

[klj27]

I agree that you should get a second opinion. We switched dentists a few years ago because everytime we went we had multiple cavitities and it took forever to get an appt for him to do all the work. After one or two appts at the new dentist to fix all the poor work the first dentist did we have had wonderful luck. On the few times that one of us has had a cavity he shows us on the tv monitor with the mouth camera and shows us on the x rays what the problem is and how he is going to fix it. He focusses a lot of dental health to avoid problems from starting and when my husband had two crowns they let us pay over six months without any penalties. My husband broke a tooth over Christmas and the dentist met him at the office on his day off and got started on the crown. Our portion is 495 and they said we don't have to pay until I get our tax refund.

Please look elsewhere before you fork over that kind of money!

 

[Swimalie]

I have horrible dental insurance and sadly, bad teeth too. One thing I've done is talked to the dentist about lowering the cost if I pay cash and save them the time and money of filing with insurance. Maybe you can offer to pay them as you get the work done in cash (check/credit card) and they will give you 10% off or something like that.

For me a filing will cost around $135 and he'll give me 10% off.

I can totally feel your pain, though. One year I had $4000 out of pocket (that's with the discounts) for dental work. I spread it out over about 4 weeks just to cut down on the pain in my mouth but I was glad when it was all done.

Good luck.

 

[NYCDiane]

In my opinion, Disney can wait. Disney will be there 3 years from now... if you allow your teeth to continue being unhealthy and decaying, you may not be. Poor dental health can lead to a host of other health problems, including heart disease.

Talk to your dentist, see if you can get a discount for paying cash, get the work done. Whatever extra $$ is left over, you can add to your "Disney Fund"...


Take care of YOURSELF.... your kids need you more than Disney needs your money!

 

[Mommee]

DH had an experience with a bad dentist, too. Guy kept saying he had cavities that needed filling and fillings that needed replacing. He was suspicious and switched dentists, and never did have those fillings done because new dentist couldn't find any issues (and it's been 10 years now!)

Our current dentist always shows us on the screen where the cavity is or takes a picture of the tooth to show us the problem.