Dental work is finally over
For the last few months I have had a serious amount of dental work done. I’ve got really bad teeth and a few years ago some molars started to weaken and break down on me.
| Date | Reason | Cost | My End | Covered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3/10/2008 | Crown | $1,006.00 | $627.50 | $378.50 |
| 3/29/2008 | Annual Cleaning | $155.00 | $0.00 | $155.00 |
| 4/12/2008 | Crown Fitting (didn’t fit) | $20.00 | $0.00 | $20.00 |
| 5/17/2008 | Filling | $240.00 | $130.00 | $110.00 |
| 5/31/2008 | Root Canal | $886.00 | $173.70 | $712.30 |
| 6/9/2008 | Root Canal part 2 (Crown Fitting instead) | |||
| 6/14/2008 | Crown fitting (Root Canal part 2 instead) | |||
| 6/23/2008 | Root Canal finishing | |||
| 6/28/2008 | Buildup with post | $240.00 | $120.00 | $120.00 |
| Totals: | $2,547.00 | $1,051.20 | $1,495.80 | |
As you can see I had a lot of work primarily done on just two teeth. I will most likely have to get a crown on the tooth that had the root canal done next year. Right now I am very happy to have a full normal feeling tooth again. This tooth cracked in half and was rebuilt back in May. The pain from the tooth started to get worse and I guess the nerve was bad and root canal was the fix for it. In the middle of the root canal the tooth cracked in half again, the crown for the other tooth had to go in, and two more appointments later it was finished. My last appointment on this tooth was this past Saturday. I’m happy that I have no more planned until my regular cleaning later this year.
After 2.5k worth of work being done, 1k out of my pocket and 1.5k paid by insurance, I would do it all over again if I had to. These totals are only for the work I had done this year. I have had as much stuff done since 2005 when I first addressed my dental issues. In college I neglected going to the dentist for regular checkups and such and it caught up to me. I’m glad I have dental insurance to help me cover the costs as well as the money to pay my part of the bill. Never take your teeth for granted, (warning: totally intended pun coming) you might find yourself biting off more than you can chew.
Question for my readers: Has your dental insurance come through to help you cover a major procedure?
Especially after reading your post I will not take my teeth granted. You have a treasure in your mouth!wow $2,547…
I am with chicky finance. teeth are really important to take care of and really expensive to fix, i have better dental insurance kickin in in a month, and then i will start having a bridge put in.
Do you have allergies? If you have allergies, your teeth will be more likely to have problems. The meds don’t just dry up your nose…..teeth also. I know where you are with the teeth….I’m surprised they haven’t tried to give me false teeth….I have so much mercury in my head, I get radio stations…lol. Good luck and thanks God for insurance!!!
Crap you got lucky. My crowns where I live, priced out with 3 different dentists on the cheap end if $1500 and only half is covered by insurance.
I have tons of work on my teeth done because I’m a grinder when I sleeep. I wear a night guard but when I cat nap I don’t. So my teeth wear faster than normal.
I have had 2 crowns and multiple porcelain overlays. I also have multiple fillings because my grinding allows my teeth to have more cavaties.
I hate going to the dentist because it’s always more work to be done.
I’m not on any regular medication that would cause my teeth to break down. The issue I had was when I had braces over a decade ago the glue on the metal brackets made it tricky to keep my teeth clean. After my braces came off I was left with these small white ’spots’ on almost every single one of them. Those areas over time broke down and I had to have each one filled as though it was a cavity in the face of the tooth. My molar teeth started breaking down because the fillings started to leak which was causing them to break down faster. I’m happy now though that most of my dental problems have been fixed.
I will probably have to get two more crowns on two teeth. The one I just had a root canal done is priority and the second is a tooth that was fixed two years ago. I’m trying my best to get this stuff handled now and take good care of them to make them last.
Luckily my dental insurance covered the whole procedure I had done in May. Not sure how I would have paid it otherwise and I was calling them a bunch after receiving the bill for $1100! They recently sent me a bill for my $25 deductible but told me in person that I probably don’t have to pay it since I paid my primary dentist my annual deductible. I’m going to call again before sending in that payment.
My dental coverage is pretty good but there are annual limits and I’m not sure I have enough to take care of my wisdom teeth removal that I want to get done ASAP. It MAY come under medical though which is what I’m hoping.
Guess that’s one of my perks for being underpaid!
I admit it, I’m hiding my tiny butt from all the dentists around here… I haven’t been in one of their offices for over four years now.
I can honestly say my dislike of dentists started when I was little. I had one who decided to pull a bunch of my teeth for no reason at all. (They were baby teeth…) It later created problems with my adult teeth coming in, and all the pain and trauma I suffered as a five year old left me never believing a dentist again.
I’ve also had an awful one who gave me a lecture about some twenty-something guy he knew who had to get dentures because he drank a case of Mountain Dew a day. Still, to this day, have no idea what that has to do with me. I drink a 12 pack of Sprite over a two week period… (I used to be worse, but at least I’m manageable for now.)
Currently, I’ve got a couple fillings that fell out and need to be replaced. I know my husband’s insurance will pay for it, but only so much. I’m afraid the work I need won’t all be covered, so I’ve put it off. And off. And off. Figure I’ll go to the dentist when I’ve got like twenty grand to tell them to make my smile super pretty.
(All in all, I just REALLY don’t want to get lectured again. I know I’m an awful dental patient. The more you lecture, the worse I get… Don’t they get it??)
OMG this scares me so much! My husband has a chipped tooth and is going to the dentist tomorrow. I can’t afford this and while we do have dental insurance it never seems to pay enough.
I’ve had 3 back to back pregnancies and have neglected my teeth, I can only imagine what is in my future.
Wow thank you so much for sharing. I brush after every meal daily but I am not that good with flossing. I will definitely floss every night now (usually i only do so every other night or so if i feel like it). I had braces when I was younger so that helped since the dentist was always poking around my teeth and checking it out but when I got it off 3 years ago I have been slacking about going for regular cleanings. In fact half of 2008 has gone by and i still haven’t done mine :T I am making my appointment on Monday!!!
Our dentist is a close friend of my mom’s so she doesn’t bill us whatever portion the insurance doesn’t cover…pro bono and all…we are lucky because our insurance doesn’t cover 100%. especially the braces.
I have Delta HMO for my dental insurance. Unfortunately I think I went once in the last years so I don’t know how good the actual insurance is. I opted out of the PPO so that I could have more money available on a monthly basis. A couple of years ago I had a few cavities. I did not have to pay anything out of pocket, but the fillings were the cheap ones.
Ouch. Sorry about all of the dental costs. My dental insurance is pretty good, so we have deductilbes. I think my max out of pocket accross al medical and dental is $500.
We haven’t had checkups since we were married (4.5 years) then had some last week.
I guess we timed it just right. My wife was less than a month away from a root canal and I was getting a cavity below an old filling.
We went because we’re about to lose dental coverage. With work having paid for dental insurance I think we came out ahead, but I don’t think we would have if we were paying for ourselves.
Well, I just spent about $12K out of pocket (even with dental insurance) on a bunch of dental work. Extractions, buildups, implants, crowns.
It was worth it to fix stuff, but at the same time, dental floss and regular cleanings are much cheaper.
Good luck!