This is incredibly embarrasasing, but my teeth are falling right out of my head and I haven't gone to the dentist, because I don't know... how... :confused: What I mean is the procedure. I do have a dental insurance plan, but I'm not sure how it works. I'll lose that insurance plan in 2 months on my 25th birthday and I desperately need to fix my poor mouth! Here are questions that I have:

Is there a co-pay and then the rest is billed to insurance (less what I am responsible for)?
Or do I have to have a lot of money up front? Can they bill me or is payment due when services are rendered?

What about having a consultation done? I'd like to go in, be assessed and then develop a game plan with the dentist and proceed from there. But what is the cost for this? Is this covered under a typical insurance plan?

Someone told me that you can apply for a type of "credit card" with the dentist for your expenses. What is all this about?

I apologize if I seem ignorant. We never went to the dentsist as children, and even though I floss regularly and brush twice a day, AND use alcohol free mouthwash, I'm still having trouble and COPIOUS amounts of confusion.

(Oh, and by the way, I have broken half of two teeth down into the root, and chipped a large hole in another where a cavity had been)

A lot of what you are asking depends on your plan type.
When I go to the dentist, there is no copay. And if there is something that is not covered, they bill me.

If your teeth are falling apart - then I doubt you can get things fixed in 2 months unless you don't wait and get that ball rolling.

As far as the credit card - it will just be used for expenses that are not covered under your insurance. I am sure that the interest rate is extremely high. It would not be a way I would choose.

I am So sorry to hear you are having such problems with your teeth :( I know how that feels :( First of all you need to find a dentist in your area that accepts whatever kind of insurance you have you can do this by typing into the computer DENTIST IN ( your hometown) whatever that may be. And you should get a list of dentist. THEN call each of them until you find one that accepts your insurance and tell them your concerns and they will tell you everything you need to know. About if you have to pay upfront OR if you just need a co-pay or not. This is really the only way you will know. You could also call your insurance company and they should be able to tell you what kind of plan you have and if you have to pay anything up front or not. Well I hope this helped some and good luck with your teeth! Denist can do miricles!

Thanks so much to both of you. I honeslty appreciate your answers and yes, they did help.

Have a wonderful day.

Your very welcome! I hope everything goes well!!

Update: Thanks to all of you who replied. I went to the dentist yesterday and much to my chagrin - it's going to be several thousand dollars - BUT I needed it and now I'm familiar with the process.

Thanks!!

I'm not sure why no one mentioned "dental schools" especially since you were losing coverage and had major dental problems to tend with.


There, you are bonded to a student and an instructor that overseas your care. Costs can be significantly less.

That is a brilliant idea... I'll have to look into it.
Thanks so much for all your help!

There are dozens or more type of dental insurance plan, so what type is yours.

One common type, 50 to 100 deductable and pays 80 percent up to 1000 to 1500 in payments.

But there are a lot of other plans,

You need to go in nad talk to the dentist office

There is a dental credit card that our dentist offers called caremark or something that is interest free if you pay within a year.

If you Google dental plans there are some that don't cost much but that can save you considerably on some procedures. You have to research them individually. Mine is American Dental Plan and has saved us quite a bit of money, but it ended up only one dentist here in Raleigh now is a member, so we have no choice of dentists. There were a couple of others but they changed plans, so I had to change from a previous dentist whom I liked. We got it about 15 years ago when I needed a bridge for an ancient broken tooth, and we paid approx $1200 instead of $2800, so it does help. The plan only costs $130 or so per person per year and cleanings and routine x rays are free.

Good luck to you. The dentist is no fun even if it is free.

Hi seafarer,

Yep... I do agree with you that discount dental plans help to get rid of our dental maladies at astonishing rates. I'm having dental plans through AmericanDiscountDental.com near my residency. And, my family had 2 root canals, 2 extractions, and a 6 unit bridge in two months. I saved almost $92, because the provider and doctor I went to were part of the dental plan.