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What I don't understand is why dentist work is not better regulated and covered by health. I can get a heart operation covered but if I have to do an implant I

What I don't understand is why dentist work is not better regulated and covered by health. I can get a heart operation covered but if I have to do an implant I have to pay for it. I mean, I understand if you charged me something as a punishment (lets say 100/200 dollars), but I don't get why is not covered. We can even make it an additional monthly payment or something. But it is crazy that there is no coverage for most things, as if one could go on with his life without teeth. Side Story: in my home country, Argentina, you can get national or imported screws/implants. The difference for doing one over the other is like 3 times. So let's say 500 dollars vs 1500 dollars (those are not the actual number), but I am friendish with a dentist, and he told me that the actual difference between a national vs imported screen is no more than 50 dollars.

OfSanguineFire 3y ago
Dental work beyond tooth extraction is generally not covered by health because it is viewed as a cosmetic procedure. From a purely health perspective, a person can go on with their lives without teeth by installing dentures, and millions of people do so.
- kwanbix 3y ago
  But that is not the truth. The impact in your life if you lose a tooth, and you cannot replace it, is horrible. Mentally it could have much more impact that many things that are covered.
zeroonetwothree 3y ago
Wouldn’t covering it more just exacerbate the problem of overcharging and doing unnecessary work? Not sure this really helps. The real problem is that dentists business model assumes they will do a lot of restorative work but people’s dental health has improved so it’s far less necessary than before.
- kwanbix 3y ago
  You should justify the need and you can be audited. Also, I do a tooth cleaning, 1 hour work, 100 euros. I do an implant, also 3 hours of work. 1800 euros. What is the reason? Wouldn't make more sense to do 10 implants at 800 than do 1 or 2 at 1800? I don't get it. One of the dentists I used to go told me that he was no longer doing implants because people won't pay for them. Of course! If it is a full minimum salary for 3/6 hour of work. Charge something reasonable and people would do it. We are in 2023, a dental implant can no longer be considered a luxury. It is crazy.
rincebrain 3y ago
I can't speak to historically, but my understanding is currently, in the US, dental coverage was excluded from a lot of "this is insane, not allowed" provisions in the ACA as a compromise, so all the fun things you loved seeing go away in health insurance like lifetime maximums on coverage are still around.
delfinom 3y ago
>What I don't understand is why dentist work is not better regulated and covered by health. If you read into the history, it's because the doctors of the past didn't consider dentistry to be a real field (basically considered it more cosmetic), so the early pioneers of dentistry profession formed their own club. And now that there's so much money in keeping the peasant bloodsucking machine known as healthcare going in the US, nobody is going to alter it to even include dentistry. For fear of losing out money.

OfSanguineFire 3y ago

Dental work beyond tooth extraction is generally not covered by health because it is viewed as a cosmetic procedure. From a purely health perspective, a person can go on with their lives without teeth by installing dentures, and millions of people do so.

kwanbix 3y ago
But that is not the truth. The impact in your life if you lose a tooth, and you cannot replace it, is horrible. Mentally it could have much more impact that many things that are covered.

zeroonetwothree 3y ago

Wouldn’t covering it more just exacerbate the problem of overcharging and doing unnecessary work? Not sure this really helps. The real problem is that dentists business model assumes they will do a lot of restorative work but people’s dental health has improved so it’s far less necessary than before.

kwanbix 3y ago
You should justify the need and you can be audited. Also, I do a tooth cleaning, 1 hour work, 100 euros. I do an implant, also 3 hours of work. 1800 euros. What is the reason? Wouldn't make more sense to do 10 implants at 800 than do 1 or 2 at 1800? I don't get it. One of the dentists I used to go told me that he was no longer doing implants because people won't pay for them. Of course! If it is a full minimum salary for 3/6 hour of work. Charge something reasonable and people would do it. We are in 2023, a dental implant can no longer be considered a luxury. It is crazy.

rincebrain 3y ago

I can't speak to historically, but my understanding is currently, in the US, dental coverage was excluded from a lot of "this is insane, not allowed" provisions in the ACA as a compromise, so all the fun things you loved seeing go away in health insurance like lifetime maximums on coverage are still around.

delfinom 3y ago

>What I don't understand is why dentist work is not better regulated and covered by health. If you read into the history, it's because the doctors of the past didn't consider dentistry to be a real field (basically considered it more cosmetic), so the early pioneers of dentistry profession formed their own club. And now that there's so much money in keeping the peasant bloodsucking machine known as healthcare going in the US, nobody is going to alter it to even include dentistry. For fear of losing out money.