No dental insurance? How to find a competent, but cheap dentist
With health insurance costs rising at an alarming rate, many of us can no longer pay for a comprehensive health insurance package that's affordable. Most often, we opt to drop our dental insurance before giving up medical insurance. You may rightly assume that there's a lot more that can go wrong with your body than with your teeth. Nonetheless, when you've got a toothache, but no dental insurance, you need to quickly locate a good, but cheap dentist. Here are a few clues on locating the elusive, cheap dentist who can expertly extract you from your woeful spot.
Recommendations from trusted friends are your best first bet. You want to hear from friends who have had a root canal, extraction or other serious work done. If your friend with Hollywood-white teeth tells you about the great and cheap dentist who cleans her teeth every 6 months, this recommendation doesn't count for much. After all, when you're facing an extraction, you want to know that this cheap dentist doesn't use a pair of pliers and his foot!
Dental work is, without a doubt, expensive. A crown can easily run several hundred dollars, not including the root canal. While some dentists offer payment plans, or fees on a sliding scale, based on your income, such dentists are dwindling in number these days. So, another strategy to locating a cheap dentist is to let your fingers do the walking through the yellow pages of your phone book. Call dentists who advertise payment plans and sliding scale fees. If you find a reasonably priced dentist with terms you can live with, ask if they can provide you with 2 or 3 references and send you a price sheet for their services.
If there is a dental school in your community, these are worth checking out. Their fees are a fraction of that which Mr. Established Dentist charges. While the dental work is performed by a dentist in training, that student is closely supervised by a licensed dentist. This cheap dentist option can save you a bundle of money. Many people have found the dental school route to be a good solution to the cheap dentist problem.
When 'interviewing' a prospective dentist, explain your particular needs and pay close attention to their response. Let's say you've had problems in the past with the Novocaine hitting the target. This can happen, if the nerve is 'hidden' under the jawbone. If the dentist responds with Oh, that's not possible., continue looking! You're looking for a reasonably priced, but competent dentist!
If you go to inquire in person at the dentist's office, pay attention to the dcor. Expensively decorated offices are not signatures of a good, cheap dentist. On the other hand, the no-frills office is often a good sign. This dentist is not funding elaborate office furnishings from his fees. The plain-Jane dcor is often a signal of an efficiently run office and competent service.
Oh, did I mention how much I hate going to the dentist? That is, until I found my current dentist. Cheap, efficient, excellent work!
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