LO1 is going to her first dental appointment tomorrow, and I was a bit surprised at the cost for a new patient. For a cleaning it's $72 (cheap!) but they said it will be $160 minimum for new patient charting and the cleaning. No X-rays or flouride. I know it varies by location but trying to figure out typical first time costs WITHOUT insurance.
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I'm surprised they're going to attempt a cleaning at her first appointment!
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@Bao: We have dental insurance so I actually don't know what ours cost but $88 ($160-$72) seems like a big mark up for the sake of creating a file with her name on it! Can you call some other dentists in your area to price shop?
@regberadaisy: I'm confused, what else would they do? We had a cleaning at our LO's first visit and she did great!
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@Truth Bombs: we took DD1 at 2 and they peeked to make sure everything was growing properly, no cavities, did a very brief cleaning, more like a wipe down. Nothing like an adult cleaning! We were not expecting a cleaning at her first check up.
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I just looked as we just took LO. It went through insurance, but the actual charge by the dentist to the insurance company was $110 for a comprehensive evaluation. Another charge for $54 for a fluoride treatment for a total of $164. The insurance negotiated rates were far lower, but that's what the dentist charged for the Philly area.
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It was free. My son doesn't have dental insurance, but it was included under our medical insurance.
I was poking around the internet and it looks like any ACA compliant plan should have this?
http://obamacarefacts.com/dental-insurance/dental-insurance/[not the most legit website name, I realize, but more just saying you should look into it because this is what our dentist told us as well]
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@LBee: there's actually two different types of aca plans. What you're required to have is minimum essential coverage which doesn't include pediatric dental. On the other hand medical plans are required to sell ehb plans to individuals and small groups which are required to include pediatric dental. Although there are still cases where it can be excluded.
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@Bao: exam: $65, fluoride: $33, cleaning (child): $56
Straight off of our fee schedule.
Eta: this is for a child 3 and older
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@Truth Bombs: the mark up is actually probably the fee for a comprehensive exam
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You are paying for a comprehensive oral exam and cleaning. Our child prophylaxis (cleaning) is $75 and our COE for children is $80. This is in the suburbs of a metro area. We haven't sold our souls to the insurance companies quite yet, so we get to choose our fees, and these are average for our area. We provide a 5% cash discount for patients who don't have insurance and pay at time of service. Our periodic exam (the one you'd get every 6 months) is $65. Fluoride is $45.
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Ours was somewhere around $140, without insurance, for his first cleaning. They literally brushed his teeth and looked at them and that was it. Crazy.
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Sounds right. the additional charge likely includes the exam portion, not just the actual cleaning.
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@yellowbird: Ah, that makes more sense. The way she stated it as for "new patient charting" seemed like it totally administrative charges.
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@ValentineMommy: I know it seems like a lot; however, what you are paying for broken down:
-hygienist's hourly wage. Some hygienists are paid by their production, mine are paid hourly and make close to $50 an hour.
-chair and supply turnover. The cost to clean a room to OSHA and cdc standards and the supplies for a dental cleaning run about $40 in my practice.
-that leaves me with about $60 that is spread between paying my non producing staff and overhead costs (i.e. Receptionists, lease, electricity, IT, other incidentals) it costs about $100k for me to run my practice, and that's before my $9000 a month practice loan payment, which is fun. I'm lucky enough not to have student loans, but many dentists graduate 500k or more in debt. The average dental overhead is 65%, meaning that the dentist makes (before loan payments) 35 cents on every dollar produced.I certainly do ok, I mean, I'm not struggling to pay my bills, but I do have to deal with people complaining about fees all day, and there's a reason why they are what they are, and it's not because I'm greedy. I have a tendency to want to give things away, but I have to remember that first and foremost I run a business and provide a good service to people.
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@toile234: Wow! That is eye opening! Thanks for sharing.
@Bao: that sounds like how much was billed to our insurance. We have coverage through work so we didn't have to pay since it was covered under preventive services.
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$172 cash (LO isn't converted under our dental insurance yet) for check up and fluoride treatment.
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I literally took two kids for the first time Tuesday.
Big sister was shockingly compliant. Got a full cleaning, fluoride, X-rays and exam. Little sister got a quick check. $340.
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