OT Price of dental work

[mjk]

Maybe Marcus can share what your up against if your a smoker/chewing tobacco.... or other habits that contribute to lowering the chance of a successful dental procedure

 

[triumph406]

There's some very good dental practices south of the border in Tijuana, Baja Mex. That's based on first hand experience of friends who cross the border for dental work.

 

[jim rozen]

The other reliable source of information is lab technicians...they have to work with the impressions and prescriptions the dentists supply to them ...

+1

This is how I selected the man who did my first bridgework. At the time there was a dental lab across the street from my house, and I button-holed the folks who worked there (and it took a few tries to convince them to answer straight) about who turned in the best impressions. They did not steer me wrong. The man was a good tecnician, and when he retired, the man who took over, likewise.

 

[aerodark]

I get all my dental work except cleaning done in Los Algodones, a small border town in Mexico near Yuma, Arizona. My dentist was trained at Loma Linda University in San Diego, speaks perfect English, and is about 10% of the cost of a Seattle dentist. Crowns are $150 and are ready in an hour, not 2 weeks. An implant is $1650 not $7000. His clinic is immaculate and has better digital Xray gear than my last US dentist. I am done paying US prices for dental work.

metalmagpie

Is he taking new patients? Contact info please.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

[snowman]

You might as well spend whatever you are asked to pay for dental work, this is the only time that you actually CAN "take it with you" when you die.

The number of crowns that I have melted down from crematoriums suggest otherwise. Grandpa's gold teeth aren't in his urn.

 

[paul39]

Last extractions I had were $800 each. Numb the area, work thin chisel tool around tooth, lift out tooth. Told to bite on a tea bag to stop bleeding. Worked. Tannic acid. In Asheville, NC.

Paul

 

[Big B]

Maybe Marcus can share what your up against if your a smoker/chewing tobacco.... or other habits that contribute to lowering the chance of a successful dental procedure

My cousin died of throat cancer and other related cancers. He was a heavy chewer and former smoker. I think he figured that chew was better for him than smoking. He almost made 50. Very sad. He was a super nice guy.

Not much question in my mind that tobacco is very addictive. My wife is an ex smoker but hasn't had a puff in about 25 years, bless her.

 

[MetalCarnage]

I am facing a situation where my son needs to have some dental work done and there is no way he can afford it. My regular dentist has given an estimate in the thousands range. I plan to take him to two or three other dentists to see what they say. It does not hurt to ask. Some things can be done in more than one way and with different prices. One dentist may not even consider the less expensive alternatives.

Shop around and see.

It might have been mentioned already but have you thought about contacting a local dental college? I know our local college at Creighton in Omaha, NE offers reduced fee or even free services to those who can't afford it. The students do the work but are closely supervised by the instructors. My son in law is graduating from the program this summer so I hear quite a bit about it.

Just a thought,

-Ron

 

[neilho]

Maybe late, but around here root canals are $1300 each. Crowns $7-800. So your quoted prices ain't bad.

Good luck with the pain just going away.

 

[DDoug]

The number of crowns that I have melted down from crematoriums suggest otherwise. Grandpa's gold teeth aren't in his urn.

Aren't these the property of the next of kin ?

 

[boslab]

This is absolutely true, we had a raw materials lab outside (due to coal dust) the main lab, we had roll crushers, jaw crushers sieve shakers all that kind of stuff, we had a 6” jaw crusher I’d bought parts for, bearings jaws etc, out the blue I got a phone call from someone desperate for some parts, turned out to be a crematorium, their jaw crusher was broken, I did not know that, they call what comes out “cremains”, I’m getting buried, there is no way I’m fing going in a jaw crusher, spent too much time round fire and crushy things, metal scrap is recovered, they have a bin for prosthetics
Mark

 

[ezduzit]

Just had a cracked eye tooth extracted this morning--$625.

 

[jim rozen]

My family members have strict instructions to remove all precious metals from my carcass before it gets hauled off and dumped in the hudson river....

 

[TeachMePlease]

Just had a cracked eye tooth extracted this morning--$625.

Dang. My last extraction was like $80 after dental insurance. She went ahead and put in the bone graft material to prevent bone loss, and when my insurance denied the payment for that, claiming it was cosmetic instead of medically necessary, she just wrote it off instead of billing me $1800.

 

[snowman]

Aren't these the property of the next of kin ?

One would think...and I honestly don't understand how the laws work. Prior to cremation, you couldn't find a dentist willing to remove the crowns if you tried. Following cremation, it's assumed you don't want them back unless you ask for them. Sorta like grandpas hip.

Now that i think of it, I think it may have actually been one of the questions they asked at the funeral home when we got dad cremated.

But a recycling company figured out that the crematoriums were tossing all this high grade nickel/chrome/moly alloy in the trash, or paying for it to be hauled away. So, they started offering free shipping and EPA approved recycling. They'd then sell a very well controlled sorted alloy to steel mills that could be used to adjust alloys.

At the same time, they'd also get pacemaker wire (platinum core wire) and dental alloy high in gold and palladium.

The company I worked for, for a hot second, would melt it down and assay it on a batch by batch basis, so the company could then decide what kind of "credit" they were going to give. ie, at that time, they paid some miserable percentage on the gold, and kept the palladium for their troubles. Mind you, palladium's current value is $2400/oz and gold is at $1750.

For the most part, the companies mailing it in, were on the up and up, as they didn't realize the value they were dumping. They were trying to do the more environmentally responsible thing, and an option was to return the "credit" as a donation to a 501c charity. It's the crematoriums that sell it to the jeweler or pawn shop that are more questionable.

Either way though, unless specifically requested, the crowns end up as someone's bonus, somewhere down the line.

If you want something fun to think about though, think about how much mercury crematoriums dump in to the air from amalgam fillings.

 

[DDoug]

My family members have strict instructions to remove all precious metals from my carcass before it gets hauled off and dumped in the hudson river....

You might want to forgo the gold front tooth, and keep an eye on the younger inlaws....

 

[snowman]

My family members have strict instructions to remove all precious metals from my carcass before it gets hauled off and dumped in the hudson river....

lol...realistically, unless you've paid for your dentists porsche, you've probably only got $50 in your mouth.

But better your family than the potters field crematorium worker after they drag your ass out of the drink.

 

[garyhlucas]

Some years ago I switched dentists. The new dentist looks in my mouth and says in awe "I've never seen that before!" I asked what he meant and he said I was the first patient in more that 20 years with some fillings on the left side and a perfect set of teeth on the right. I told him that was because of the Plan. It is really hard to chew with even one bad tooth, so I'm getting 45 years on the left then 45 years on the right. He got a good laugh out of that! At 67 it has worked pretty well so far.

 

[1yesca]

guy at work was saying that he needed a root canal and a Crown cost 2k he found out that he qualified as low income new cost $105

 

[jim rozen]

lol...realistically, unless you've paid for your dentists porsche, you've probably only got $50 in your mouth.
But better your family than the potters field crematorium worker after they drag your ass out of the drink.

Who says they're gonna care enough to drag my ass out of the river? Besides I'll probably have the five gallon buckets full of cement
over my feet....