All of my life I have had to take antibiotics before anything done in the dentist's office. Most of the time it was to pull a tooth or filling cavities, but then it morphed into bridges, crowns, and the like.
I was really shocked that the dentist I am now seeing to replace two very old bridges, and several crowns required no antibiotics and said it has been found it does nothing to protect the heart. So far, so good and I am almost done, only two more visits.
The whole process cost me $6,000 with a dental plan (that cost me $75 for one year). Originally, it was estimated at almost $20,000 by my regular dentist, and then $11,000 by a second dentist with a dental plan. I continued looking and found a third dentist who did the whole thing for half of that with a lower cost dental plan. I don't get why the difference, except that the second dentist with the plan has a huge facility, several dentists, and it seemed like a hundred assistants. Very high overhead, obviously. He said the difference in price was that he used the best labs and other dentists don't. I also noticed on my own that he charged for things that my current dentist did not charge for, like the molds. He also had an upfront charge of $2,500 just to get the temporary bridges made. My current dentist did not charge for that either.
So even if you subscribe to a dental plan, be careful it's one of the lower cost plans and also go over the list of what is to be done very, very carefully. The second dentist whose estimate was $11,000 listed that estimate for the top bridges only. I had thought it was for the whole procedure. It wasn't. I would have ended up paying $20,000, which I did not have anyway, and at my age would not have made sense.
My daughter paid a dentist over $10,000 just to remove the amalgam fillings on one side of her mouth and replace with composite resin (white fillings). She is not sure when she will have the other side done. Removing amalgam fillings and disturbing the mercury within them is sometimes risky, as it stirs up the mercury that's in the body already.
If she does have it done (and she will) it will be with a dental plan, since she has no dental coverage, as most people don't. I never did. I always had to pay cash. I have spent thousands over the years trying to keep my own teeth in my mouth (not that bridges and crowns are one's own teeth, but they are permanently affixed and do not have to be taken out every night).
I saw my own parents struggle with dentures, my mom in her thirties, and my father in his early forties. Even at my age, I did not want to have to go through this . . . and guess what . . . to get good ones, they cost almost as much as what I had done.
I guess I kinda veered off the topic, but I am so relieved that I have had this done and almost finished.
Formerly Ford1224
We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Elie Wiesel 1986
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