The Dentist

**Sonnenwende** · 03-02-2012, 07:21 PM

The dentist has eaten my entire tax refund and an additional $1300 since December.

We've paid $2700 out of pocket.
Dental insurance picked up $4900.

We're walking around with $7600 in our mouths.

My husband still needs gum grafts, fillings, cleanings. I need an additional crown. Some of this is going to have to wait until next year, but I am bummed that the money I was going to use to pay down my student loan and beef up the savings account some more has been completely spent on teeth.

We are otherwise 100% healthy. Why do our teeth suck? Whine whine whine...

**greekislandgirl** · 03-03-2012, 07:00 AM

Originally Posted by Sonnenwende

We are otherwise 100% healthy.

THAT is absolutely awesome and wonderful. Hold onto that. And remember that teeth are an important investment.

**josantoro** · 03-03-2012, 07:25 AM

WOw, that is a lot of money. You are lucky to have dental insurance that will cover that much.

DH and I are keeping our fingers crossed - we go to a dental hygiene clinic at the junior college for low-cost cleanings and x-rays and hope we don't need any work. DH has 2 teeth broken off at gum line and a missing crown but he is willing to live with it. I have a mouthful of fillings from being bad in my early years and am hoping they are all stable.

In our state there are some dental clinics that charge on a sliding-fee scale but we are not in the catchment area that they cover. In other words we live in the wrong town.

I wish they had a dental school near us, we are about equidistant from 3, each is about 3-4 hours drive away.

**khaski** · 03-03-2012, 08:07 AM

As someone with no dental insurance, I feel for you! In the last 15 months or so hubby has had his wisdom teeth out, a crown put on- cost roughly $2400 just for those, never mind cleanings and some fillings.DD3 had her first cleaning in Jan- she has 5! cavities (little plaque though, they say her molar grooves are unusually deep so stuff really collects in there- sigh). Her fillings are costing us over $500, on baby teeth (grrrrr). Luckily we can afford all this with some planning, but what a pain! Used some of our tax refund to start a dental/emergency vet bill fund- will use for costly dental work or unexepected vet bills (not teeth cleanings, the random filling or regular pet visits). I will feel good when we have a good $2k or so in there- enough to cover a crown or emergency c-section on a dog if needs be (I breed).

We looked into dental insurance through hubby's work- at roughly $128 a month, with what they cover, we decided it really wasn't worth it- we'd need a LOT of work, more than we've even had done recently, to make it worth it. The 'break even' point is pretty ridiculous. So I understand your whining!