Need estimate costs for crown, root canal & crown lengthening?!
Question:
Need estimate costs for crown, root canal & crown lengthening?
I live in Los Angeles. I went to my dentist this week & had 2 root canals (teeth #20 &21) done. I was charged $460 for each root canal and $ 670 for each crown. Since I needed crown lengthening for my tooth # 20, I have to pay for another $650. Besides this, I need to have deep cleaning before having the crown lengthening which will cost me for another $850 (antibact included). I don't have dental insurance although they offer 1 year interest free financing. If I could run from that dental clinic & not go back but I had no choice because of my dreaded toothache. I wanted to have my tooth extracted so I won't have to pay this much. But they wanted to save my tooth. Did the dentist charge me too much? help... serious answers please. Thank you!
Answers:
Those fees sound pretty average for a private-practice dentist.
If money is an issue, how about going to one of the three dental schools in the LA area? UCLA, USC and Loma Linda all have dental schools, and their fees are about half what a private dentist charges. You do have to give up more time though, since a dental student has to ask an instructor dentist to check each step of the work he is doing.
As far as whether or not saving those teeth is worth it, keep in mind #20 and #21 are near the front of your bottom jaw (the pre-molars). You can have them extracted, but that may leave an unsightly gap. Also, extracted teeth may cause situations such as spaces opening up between your remaining teeth or the opposing teeth on the other arch rising out of their sockets once they have nothing to bite against, and would end up costing you even more money to fix in the future.
Replacing missing teeth (especially those that leave unsightly gaps near the front) costs money too-- partial dentures, bridges, implants. You can have your #20 and #21 extracted, but you should make an informed decision rather than believing some drivel about how dentists "don't make money on extractions."
Hope this helps, and good luck.