Dental cost if you have no dental insurance (Boston, Harvard: health insurance, credit)

[cb2008]

Have you compared cost for dental service if you are a senior and on medicare which does not cover dental care?

[Parsec]

My parents have medicare, supplemental heath insurance, AND separate dental insurance. They are thinking of dropping their dental insurance because they can't justify the cost. If you just get a few cleanings per year, insurance is totally not worth it. You'd have to run your own numbers of course.

[in_newengland]

If this is a question pertaining to health insurance plans available only here in MA, then some of the free or low cost Advantage plans do offer free cleanings twice a year. There are more expensive supplemental plans that may cover dental. They probably do because they cost more but I don't really know.

I asked my dentist and he said there were no good dental insurance plans. What I do with huge dental bills is charge it to Care Credit and pay it off interest free within either one year or six months, whatever time frame the dentist gives you.

[NS-GR]

IMO, dental insurance is not worth the money.
Actually, I now use the Harvard Dental School practice. These guys are really awesome. They are basically students supervised by faculty and they are doing amazing job. The cost is really minimal. E.g., a root canal, which is supposed to be a difficult and expensive dental procedure costs less than $500 total. All other procedures are super cheap. The students (or residents) are fantastic and very careful. Actually, they really do the procedures "by the book" and another advantage is that they will never suggest to do more procedures than required, because this is an academic, not a for profit practice. The only downside is that every procedure takes a lot of time (even the fillings or cleanings) because they have to perform each step of the procedure and then after each step have a faculty member check whether it was done correctly. So, essentially each appointment is about 2-3 hours easily. But if you do not mind spending time and if you do not mind going to Longwood Medical Area for the dental appointments, this is the most cost-effective way to have dental work done and it totally does not worth to have insurance.

[cb2008]

I am not considering dental insurance because I have very few, or no, problems. Since being on Medicare I get cleaning every 9 months and am more diligent with daily dental hygiene. My hygienist always remarks on it. I don't see the dentist every time either. $ 120.
So now I got a call from my dentist - they want to do a whole mouth X-ray , exam, and cleaning. Total bill $335. I think he wants to fire me ��. So now I am shopping for a dentist who will do things on my terms, or charge me less.
If you are paying from your own pocket how much do you pay for your general dentist services?
Has anyone tried The Tuft Medical school for getting your teeth cleaned and ex rays?

[in_newengland]

Originally Posted by cb2008

I am not considering dental insurance because I have very few, or no, problems. Since being on Medicare I get cleaning every 9 months and am more diligent with daily dental hygiene. My hygienist always remarks on it. I don't see the dentist every time either. $ 120.
So now I got a call from my dentist - they want to do a whole mouth X-ray , exam, and cleaning. Total bill $335. I think he wants to fire me ��. So now I am shopping for a dentist who will do things on my terms, or charge me less.
If you are paying from your own pocket how much do you pay for your general dentist services?
Has anyone tried The Tuft Medical school for getting your teeth cleaned and ex rays?

I tried Tufts Dental School once. Some people have had good experiences there but mine was totally negative. I had an incompetent dental student and he was hardly supervised at all. First you sign away your rights--which I was okay with because I knew I would only be getting a student and it would be cheap.

I went because I had a crown fall off a tooth and that was all. But they told me I needed a root canal on another tooth. I should have just walked out! This kid messed my mouth up so much that they ended up sending me to their (emergency? specialist) and I had to go back to that specialist several times getting antibiotics and having them try to fix the damage this kid had done.

Finally I went to a real dentist who ended up needing to extract that tooth. Then I had to pay to get a dental implant --so I ended up paying a lot more than I normally would have. I also had to pay for a new crown from that new dentist--the original reason I went to Tufts in the first place.

If you try a dental school I would suggest being very careful and if you get a bad feeling about your student dentist or there is practically no supervision, RUN away from it.

Additionally, I've been reading (on CD) that these 6 month x-rays are not necessary at all. Maybe every two years with a cleaning twice a year. The x-rays are indicated if you are in pain or something is wrong, not just as routine.

[cb2008]

Originally Posted by NS-GR

IMO, dental insurance is not worth the money.
Actually, I now use the Harvard Dental School practice. These guys are really awesome. They are basically students supervised by faculty and they are doing amazing job. The cost is really minimal. E.g., a root canal, which is supposed to be a difficult and expensive dental procedure costs less than $500 total. All other procedures are super cheap. The students (or residents) are fantastic and very careful. Actually, they really do the procedures "by the book" and another advantage is that they will never suggest to do more procedures than required, because this is an academic, not a for profit practice. The only downside is that every procedure takes a lot of time (even the fillings or cleanings) because they have to perform each step of the procedure and then after each step have a faculty member check whether it was done correctly. So, essentially each appointment is about 2-3 hours easily. But if you do not mind spending time and if you do not mind going to Longwood Medical Area for the dental appointments, this is the most cost-effective way to have dental work done and it totally does not worth to have insurance.

I actually am in the process f making an appointment at Tufts medical school - same deal. It is inconvenient though because I have to get to Boston. Let 's see how that goes.

[MaryleeII]

Also check out community colleges that have a dental hygiene program. You can low-cost/free cleanings performed by student dental hygiene students. Of curse, all checked by certified instructors.

[Parsec]

I wouldn't do this because I'm anal about my teeth and love my dentist, but if your teeth are in good health you can jump around and use a different dentist every year. You can get a $99 "new patient" special which includes cleaning, exam and x-rays. Then you can pay them around $100 for a regular cleaning 6 months later. Then next year you can find another $99 new patient special.

[LovinLifeinMA]

My husband carries the dental insurance but it doesn't cover a whole lot. I purchased supplemental insurance from Dental Plans | Dental Insurance Alternatives | 30+ Plans and it paid for itself already with the money I saved on my crown. It might be worth looking in to, and they are offering 1 month free.