So, today I went to the 2nd opinion dentist. Let me tell you, I was hoping against everything that I wouldn’t like this place and/or they’d tell me all this additional work that needed to be done and give me an outrageous price.
Well, it didn’t exactly happen like that. At first glance, I was skeptical about the place (the elevator was trashy looking, but that’s a knock against the building, not the actual dentist who uses office space there).
The receptionist was nice, if maybe a bit too perky for my liking at 9 am.
The dental assistant didn’t seem to know what she was doing or how to operate the computer she was using that would show my x-rays (and later, the receptionist, who also deals with the patient financials, said that she was expecting more x-rays than the 6 that were done).
The actual dentist who saw me? She was really nice. I was the first patient for the day, so they were still sort of setting us, but she apologized for keeping me waiting. Anyways, she rattled off the work that needed to be done and then she explained everything to me. She has a Middle Eastern accent, so I had a bit of a hard time understanding her, but then she pulled up a video that explained all of the work she said I needed to have done.
This was something that my dentist didn’t do, maybe it was because I didn’t ask, but I still think it should have been done. See, my dentist mentioned the extractions, but didn’t tell me about replacement teeth. It was just “you need these extractions” and that was it. This dentist, however, told me “you need these extractions, and also a partial denture and 2 bridges to keep your remaining teeth from shifting and causing more problems”. Okay, right. That makes sense. My dentist never told me that, but I knew that shifting teeth was a possibility without something to take the place of the extracted root tips (which are what need to be taken out). Also, my dentist said I needed to have a cleaning done. Yeah, I would say so after 4 years. This dentist said I needed a deep cleaning because she noticed there were spaces between my gums and the teeth and simple cleaning alone wouldn’t get all the junk that brushing and flossing missed. The one thing she didn’t mention was the cavity between my 2 front teeth. I’m pretty sure this wasn’t mentioned because of the lack of a full set of x-rays…or maybe there just wasn’t a cavity there?
After the examination, I spoke with the receptionist/financial advisor, and she broke down how much everything was going to cost, and further explained the treatments. When I say she broke down the cost, I mean, she broke it down.
( pic )She asked why it’d been so long since my last visit (remember, we were going with “I haven’t been to the dentist in 4+years) and I said it was because I didn’t have insurance and my dentist wasn’t working much with me in regards to how I could pay for my work. She told me that she didn’t want me to worry about that because she and the dentist wanted me to have a beautiful smile (and blah blah blah lol) I think I ended up with something like a 51% discount on the work that needs to be done.
Here’s the really really good part. I literally only pay for the work I have done during the visit. Today’s exam was free (they have a special for un-insured new patients and that’s why I went), but should I go back and decide to get an extraction, I’d only pay for that extraction. Should I decide to go with only the deep cleaning, then I’d only pay for that.
While my dentist set up a “payment” plan, the way it was explained to me was working on the assumption that I’d be having all the work done, so they were going to split it into 2 payments of $375 and 1 payment of $374. That means I’d be paying for work I didn’t have done during that visit.
Also, for as long as I had to wait, I was in and out pretty fast, in my opinion. My appointment was for 9:30 am and I was finished by 10:50 am and catching the bus home at 11 am.
When I got home and explained to my dad what happened, he was still of the opinion that I shouldn’t have 6 teeth removed. He wasn’t getting it that they were root tips and if they weren’t taken care of, it would cost me more in the end. He also said that my dentist was the best choice as the price was cheaper.
That may be so, but if I went with my dentist, I’d have to assume they wouldn’t give me the option have having bridge work or a partial denture to replace the missing teeth and that would make me have to have more work a few years from now or something.
So, in the end, I think I’m going to go with this new dentist. I’ll start with the deep cleaning, and then in November or December, I’ll start on the extractions. Hopefully by then I’ll have a job, if not dental insurance, and won’t have to worry (much) about how long it’s going to take me to pay off the credit card and all the dental work I’d be paying for with it.
This entry was originally posted at
http://simplyn2deep.dreamwidth.org/35458.html. You can comment here or there. Sometimes I lock entries. no biggie. add me as a friend if you want to see.
♥
comments
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
comments
