Why do dentist charge so much when they cannot guarantee treatment will work?

Question

I need root treatment but my dentist said it may not work and it costs 189.99 !!

Answer 1

I know how you feel. But, nothing is guaranteed in life.

Answer 2

First of all, I'm not a dentist.

If you are talking about a root "canal" treatment, $189 is cheap. $350 was not an unusual charge, ten years ago.

If you are talking about a root "treatment", $189 can be about the right price.

There are two reasons for the price

1. It's a serious condition. A root treatment is done when tooth decay is not just on the top of the tooth, but all the way down into the root, below the gum line. If the condition is untreated, the tooth can snap off due to later decay, at any level, including right next to the bone, and you will have to hire an expensive dental surgeon to take out what's left.

2. The dentist went to school for a number of years, and he is paying off the college loan, and he is renting an office, and paying at least two assistants to work full time, and it has to cost a couple hundred thousand dollars just to put two chairs and a full set of instruments into an office, and he's paying off the equipment loan also, and he has to pay for everything (medicine, anesthetic, cotton) he puts into your mouth. If he gets $40 for himself out of a $189 charge, he's lucky. And $40 won't feed his family.

So the answer is to take care of your teeth as he recommends, and take the root treatment and pay for it, and then either buy dental insurance, or get a job at a company that offers dental insurance. If you have one deep cavity, you'll have another, sooner or later.

Answer 3

Which would you prefer? Saving the tooth and possibly having a crown done later, or having a gaping hole?

You pay to save the tooth. The tools and treatment utilities, licensing, and so forth, for any dental establishment, is NOT cheap.

I've had two root canals, and unfortunately the teeth needed to be capped immediately as they were broken by a brat at a school field trip that tripped me. It's not that serious. These were done on live teeth, not teeth dying from decay. And, since we opted to root canal then crown, I have my two front teeth today. Most of the time the necessity of a root canal can be prevented by practicing oral hygiene.

It's restorative work for a reason. It's restoring damage done due to trauma or medical problems or decay from lack of hygiene.

By the way, to open a dental office, you're looking at easily over $100,000 just for your equipment and office supplies in the first year alone. Someone has to pay. Guess who it is? You. You are taking advantage of a service provided. Take care of your teeth, and under normal circumstances, you will never need restorative work beyond a cleaning every 6 months.

Answer 4

A doctor by any other name is still a doctor. How many Md's do you know of that guarantees their work? Or hospitals for that matter?
Depends on the root work as far as pricing goes. Is it a root canal? It's a cheap one if it is, unless you have ins that covers the rest of it.
And honestly, I've never heard of a root canal that actually worked. 5-7 years down the line, the tooth has to be pulled anyway.

Answer 5

It's not like you need a new muffler here. We know what USUALLY works, but the human body is amazingly complex and no two people's parts are interchangeable.

What do YOU do for a living? Do you guarantee 100% success at everything you do? I think your dentist is just trying to be honest with you. He probably said that it usually works, but he would never promise that it will work. Hey, heart transplants usually work, don't they? Do you think the surgeon would guarantee success? Of course not.

Answer 6

Go NHS, if you can.

Isn't it worth it to potentially make everything better? Why not discuss the other options with him/her before you have it done - this might be the easiest way of doing it. If it does work, you'll be sorted, if it doesn't, the dentist may be willing to give you a discount on the alternative, particularly if you stick with him.

And that's not really expensive for dental surgery! (Yes, they do charge too much! Because they know they can!)

Answer 7

root canal treatment will not cost u £189.!!it falls under BAND 2which is part of the new contracts started this april.make him aware that u know this!!
1)BAND 1=£15.50
2)BAND 2=£42.40
3)BAND 3=£189.00
They cant guarantee rct because u could get another infection and later on u may have to have the tooth out anyway!!
WORD OF ADVISE-any treatment u have done is guaranteed for 12 months and u shouldnt have to pay for it again!! hope this is helpful em x

Answer 8

The bottom line is greed. My ex-dentist was NHS but then worked out he'd get more by going private and forced patients to do the same. I was out of there damn quick. My new dentist is NHS and the charges are slightly less. The lack of a guarantee is because most of them aren't up to the job and a guarantee would have to be acted on without further costs incurred by the patient.

Answer 9

There is not a perfect science, dentistry is not meant to solve a problem forever, it can lasts for a long time if the patient tekes care of ti...but anyways, I believe is costly because of the materials used, and the amount of time and work spent, is a lot of work believe it or not! sadly the standar cost for those procedures does not get any lower.

Answer 10

Ohmigoodness!

Medicine is an ART, not a science. No medical procedure is guaranteed, even when the doctor/dentist feels certain of success.

You're not a car, y'know.

Answer 11

have your dentist pull the tooth instead root canal is too expensive and doesn't work. and it's easier too you alwaus have a tooth implant or gold tooth later when you get the money. as they just want to make more money from things like everyone else..I'm still trying to find reasonable dental and oral surgery.