Any dental professionals here?

Honestly, I had a dentist tell me some similar baloney and that I needed to have my front teeth "capped" to fix a fractured tooth.

I had stopped going to a dentist I really liked for a while because my insurance wouldn't cover him.

When I had an issue, I bit the bullet and went to him anyway because I knew he wasn't going to BS me. Despite the insurance issue I went hoping things had changed and told him I didn't care if the insurance covered it or not, I'll pay out of pocket if I have to but I have a problem.

I told him what went down with the other dentist and he said "That's garbage. There's no need to destroy 3 other teeth for the sake of one here. We can go for another root canal but it's iffy if it'll work but I have a feeling insurance won't cover anything further until we try that."

So we did and it failed and that put us on to the next step where he told me he could do a crown on the tooth and be done with it but since it's a front tooth, it will look odd and has a high chance of failure AND affecting the teeth nearby. Or we could do an implant which is much more involved but it's permanent and unlikely to fail.

Insurance would cover the crown completely but only 70% of the implant. I was debating in my head and he looks at me and says "You have questions, I can see it on your face." I told him I understood everything completely, just debating on what to do. I asked him what he would do if it was him. He said he'd go either way but he knew what the pros and cons were. So I asked him "If it was your kid...what would you do?" He says, without skipping a beat, "Implant."

So I have a titanium stud and bionic toof in my face.

It's not so much the cost that matters or what you have to deal with.

It's how honest and human is your care provider, not just dentists, anything. Are they going to be realistic with you or are they going to try and use you as a cash pump?

My dentist didn't get the majority of the money from the procedure. The oral surgeon did. He got a chunk of change for sure but not as much as if it was crowns. So he basically told me to go for the more expensive option that he would see less from because the level of my care was more important.

I would most certainly go for a 2nd opinion...maybe even a 3rd and forget about the first one. I wasn't even there, it's not my face either and that story about the first one gives me the heebiejeebies.

I had a dentist try to get me to spend 25K for snap-in dentures. His plan, with a buddy oral surgeon, was something they came up with called....PLAN X. F them.

I need dentures and just maybe...I'll contact some other places this year. Maybe I'll pass over and won't need any anymore.

muncybob wrote: »

So a few months ago I noticed a filling in tooth#2 was missing. Finally made it to the dentist and they took a couple of x-rays(to be expected) and I was told the missing filling would not stay in unless tooth#s 3 & 4 were crowned. Dentist gave me some explanation regarding how old the missing filling was and that unless the crowns were done a new filling would not stay in place.

This is a dentist I've never been to previously and I may try to get a 2nd opinion since I really don't see why tooth# 4 is in play here, but to those that know a lot more about dentistry than I do, does this sound right?

I'm a dentist, but now fully retired. No, it doesn't sound right to me as you have explained it. Maybe teeth #s 3&4 need crowns to prevent them from from suffering the same fate as #2, but there is no way I could accurately address that without examining you.

VR3 wrote: »

Dare I say this thread needs pics 😁

Your wish is my command...