I think my dentist is ripping me off.

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I've had this problem. Sometimes it seems like a dentist's "thing".

I see a dentist every year and get cleanings once to twice per year. Moved to a new place, and the dentist told me I needed periodontal treatment. When through all the pain of getting that approved, treated, etc, and put on the every-three-month schedule. OK, fine -- though there was a % out of pocket, plus the dentist's office would push some "extra" treatment (basically a point injection/spray) that my insurance would not cover, every time I came in.

Relocated, new dentist -- no mention of need for periodontal treatment, just regular treatment.

Relocated again, back to the prior location and back to the prior dentist. They jumped right back on the "periodontal plus extras" treatment schedule. So I fired them (it did not help that they screwed up my billing, too). Found a new local dentist, started from scratch -- they basically told me that I had a couple of spots to watch, but did not go into the deep cleaning routine.

So it really feels like a racket with that one dentist.

 

[Zardnaar]

People get a anesthetic for a simple filling? Now that's a rip off.

I've stopped using it. Prefer the brief pain over fuzzy headed for a bit. Injured myself a few years back and now normal levels of pain don't hurt as much.

 

[wingsandsword]

I've stopped using it. Prefer the brief pain over fuzzy headed for a bit. Injured myself a few years back and now normal levels of pain don't hurt as much.

You get fillings done without novocaine or anything similar? Just letting the dentist drill into a tooth without any numbing agent whatsoever?

That's a little higher on the Fort Save DC than I'd like like to repeat. I had a dentist do that to me once as a teenager, that was enough for a lifetime.

 

[wingsandsword]

I've had this problem. Sometimes it seems like a dentist's "thing".

I see a dentist every year and get cleanings once to twice per year. Moved to a new place, and the dentist told me I needed periodontal treatment. When through all the pain of getting that approved, treated, etc, and put on the every-three-month schedule. OK, fine -- though there was a % out of pocket, plus the dentist's office would push some "extra" treatment (basically a point injection/spray) that my insurance would not cover, every time I came in.

Relocated, new dentist -- no mention of need for periodontal treatment, just regular treatment.

Relocated again, back to the prior location and back to the prior dentist. They jumped right back on the "periodontal plus extras" treatment schedule. So I fired them (it did not help that they screwed up my billing, too). Found a new local dentist, started from scratch -- they basically told me that I had a couple of spots to watch, but did not go into the deep cleaning routine.

So it really feels like a racket with that one dentist.

Yeah, that's basically my suspicion on this, that it's something that this dentist is doing to maximize his take, to engage in bill padding.

I'm planning on seeing a second dentist, getting a second opinion. If a second dentist says I don't need this 4x a year schedule with bigger, more expensive appointments, I'll trust the second opinion on that.

The fact that every visit after the first one has involved the dentist saying there are no problems, no issues, everything's looking good ect. . .makes me very suspicious about this.

 

[Morrus]

You get fillings done without novocaine or anything similar? Just letting the dentist drill into a tooth without any numbing agent whatsoever?

That's a little higher on the Fort Save DC than I'd like like to repeat. I had a dentist do that to me once as a teenager, that was enough for a lifetime.

Zardnaar watched Marathon Man’s torture scene and thought “I can do that!”

In other news, I have never heard of a dentist who would do a filling without a local anaesthetic.

 

[wingsandsword]

Sounds to me like your insurance is the problem, not the dentist.

Remember that healthcare, including dentistry, in the US is almost entirely profit driven.

If a dentist can find a way to justify extra visits, at a more expensive billing code, they may very well use them.

Rather than 2 visits a year at ~$70 each, billing for 4 visits a year at ~$180 each and telling the patient it's medically necessary (as long as they can find some plausible way to justify that to the insurance company, even if it's not strictly needed) is something many dentists would do here. That way the dentist would be making about 5 times more off me a year than they would with normal, standard 2x/year cleanings that wouldn't cost me anything out-of-pocket from my insurance.

That's from his end, that's making $140 off me a year vs. making $720 off me a year.

From my end with my current insurance (which costs me about $80/month for dental insurance, which is completely separate from health insurance), it would be ~$0 out-of-pocket each year (for 2x/year regular cleanings), to paying ~$520 out-of-pocket a year (for the 4x/year "periodontal maintenance" visits he wants).

That's my suspicion.

(I know you live in the UK, I figured this might give some perspective on how it financially works here that is probably different than how it works there).

 

[wingsandsword]

Zardnaar watched Marathon Man’s torture scene and thought “I can do that!”

In other news, I have never heard of a dentist who would do a filling without a local anaesthetic.

The problem was that the doctor did it wrong.

He missed with the needle of Novocaine. Numbed part of my face and jaw, but that tooth still had sensation.

He ignored me when I tried to tell him I could feel everything and it HURT. He said I was faking it and being dramatic, and when I tried to resist, he had his hygienist physically hold me down while he drilled one of my molars and filled it.

He thought because my tongue was numb and I was talking funny from the novocaine having numbed part of my face, that the tooth had to be numb too and I was lying about feeling it all as he drilled in.

That was a quarter century ago. Still remember it vividly. It's why, aside from mandatory dental checkups in the Army (where they said they saw no issue requiring treatment, my last one being about a year before I went to this dentist who was making such a hubbub about me needing all this treatment) and having my wisdom teeth cut out in the Army (because they're fanatical about that) I didn't see a dentist for around 20 years.

 

[Morrus]

(I know you live in the UK, I figured this might give some perspective on how it financially works here that is probably different than how it works there).

Dentists aren’t usually on the NHS, and we rarely have dental insurance. My dentist is private and I pay for everything. $80 sounds quite reasonable.

 

[Morrus]

He ignored me when I tried to tell him I could feel everything and it HURT. He said I was faking it and being dramatic, and when I tried to resist, he had his hygienist physically hold me down while he drilled one of my molars and filled it.
.

Seriously? Somebody held you down and drilled into your tooth against your will?

Medical procedures without consent are criminal acts. If what you are saying is true, you’ve been seriously assaulted by somebody who should be in prison.

I don't really know what to say. You have dentists holding you down and torturing you against your will, dentists fraudulently forcing you to undertake expensive treatment plans your insurance won't pay for... I dunno. Did you offend the Dentist Illuminati?

 

[Scott DeWar]

You get fillings done without novocaine or anything similar? Just letting the dentist drill into a tooth without any numbing agent whatsoever?

That's a little higher on the Fort Save DC than I'd like like to repeat. I had a dentist do that to me once as a teenager, that was enough for a lifetime.

when I was 10, I had 6 fillings without Novocain. I also walked in to the ER in 2011 at the age of 48 with full on septic shock that had the docs put me in an induced coma for 6 weeks. one filling is noting on the pain scale now days.