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In my long history of dental work, I have never once been told the cost of a procedure before agreeing to it. This might be true. It doesn't have to be. If you

In my long history of dental work, I have never once been told the cost of a procedure before agreeing to it. This might be true. It doesn't have to be. If your dentist won't tell you the price of an exam before she does it, and won't immediately give you an itemized treatment plan after the exam is complete, find another dentist. Dentistry is not like going to the hospital.

tomjakubowski 6y ago
My experience has been that dentists and optometrists are happy to give prices up front if you ask. Doctors, not so much - does this have to do with health insurance and billing being so much more complicated?
- khuey 6y ago
  Yes. It's also the structure of the insurance policies. Dental insurance typically has a relatively low annual maximum payout which caps the insurer's losses on any given customer. Health insurers have the potential for nearly unlimited liability on any given customer and design Kafkaesque processes to try to wriggle out of it.
  - jessaustin 6y ago
    Health insurance is awful, but dental insurance isn't much better. Employer-provided dental insurance is fine. Don't buy it yourself, however. If you have few dental problems, it will just be a way to pay an extra percentage over standard exams and cleanings. If you need a lot of work, however, a standard private plan will pay for a portion of the work done on one tooth in any particular year. Private paid dental insurance is basically never a good investment. It is better to borrow when you need dental work you can't immediately afford than to waste money on dental insurance.
cosmodisk 6y ago
Is this a US only thing? In most European countries prices are published on dentist's website. For more complex cases, where a whole range of procedures are needed, they'd assess you first and then provide itemised plan on how It'd look. Of course,in some high end clinics,where nobody cares about the prices and only millionaires are the patients, that may not be the case. Edit: For instance,the first Google result in London: https://thedentalsurgery.co.uk/price-list/ https://thedentalsurgery.co.uk/price-list/

tomjakubowski 6y ago

My experience has been that dentists and optometrists are happy to give prices up front if you ask. Doctors, not so much - does this have to do with health insurance and billing being so much more complicated?

khuey 6y ago
Yes. It's also the structure of the insurance policies. Dental insurance typically has a relatively low annual maximum payout which caps the insurer's losses on any given customer. Health insurers have the potential for nearly unlimited liability on any given customer and design Kafkaesque processes to try to wriggle out of it.
- jessaustin 6y ago
  Health insurance is awful, but dental insurance isn't much better. Employer-provided dental insurance is fine. Don't buy it yourself, however. If you have few dental problems, it will just be a way to pay an extra percentage over standard exams and cleanings. If you need a lot of work, however, a standard private plan will pay for a portion of the work done on one tooth in any particular year. Private paid dental insurance is basically never a good investment. It is better to borrow when you need dental work you can't immediately afford than to waste money on dental insurance.

cosmodisk 6y ago

Is this a US only thing? In most European countries prices are published on dentist's website. For more complex cases, where a whole range of procedures are needed, they'd assess you first and then provide itemised plan on how It'd look. Of course,in some high end clinics,where nobody cares about the prices and only millionaires are the patients, that may not be the case. Edit: For instance,the first Google result in London: https://thedentalsurgery.co.uk/price-list/ https://thedentalsurgery.co.uk/price-list/