Hi Guys,
I recently had a checkup and was advised I need 4 fillings and some recalcification. Cost in total = $750.
I can't really afford this right now but because i work I'm not entitled to go to a free dental clinic here in Brisbane.
Does anyone know of a cheaper option?
Cheap dentist? Plenty. But filling might fell off in couple of months. I've done that.
Think again. Good Dental and cheap price don't marry.
Highlights why at least preventative dental work should be bulk billed through medicare.
Government is doing this for kids now, at least it's a start.
Too expensive for everyone to be subsidised for preventative care. To apply fluoride, clean and check up, it will cost the goverment $300 +/- $50 per person.
add 1% to medicare levy to fund it.
Still wont be enough to fund everyone
And we all pay enough for medicare levy anyway
since "can't really afford this right now"
- any pain currently on the teeth
- any sore gum, esp abscess above the tooth
2.talk to dentist about your current financial situation AND
3.ask if these need to be done ASAP. Which one needs to be done first or all four?
If you haven't ask, call and leave a message.,
4.if the decay are not too deep and not pain/symptoms, sensodyne toothpaste was on special $5 to ease any mild sensation.
Brush teeth regularly to avoid further decay, no sugar drinks or coke.
Discuss sincerely with your dentist who may be willing to help.
5.Set the priorities right.
Sometimes Dr does the right thing to help and then finds out people who have no money for surgery but have time for travel holiday with family. This spoils all the good faith.
Check out dental clinics at universities. We charge ~70-150 depending on size of the filling.
However, it will be dental students working on you. If they've just started clinic, one filling may take 1.5-3 hours.
The dental work may be stretched over a period to suit your financial situation as well, but this will be dependent on your extent of decay.
Agreed but you must have a health care card from the government.
There are many public community clinics - search it up at DHSV.
$750 to get your teeth sorted? That's cheap. I just paid $4000 for some dental work.
Pay it.
Maybe the dentist will accept payment via installments?
Hi Taylaj
My humble advice and the only thing I can think of, that you could do in your situation is ring around ("shop around") for a cheaper price.
Did the dental clinic provide you with an itemised quote, which lists the item numbers for the work required?
If they did a written quote for you, then you can ring other surgeries and quote the item numbers and ask them how much they charge for each one.After they have provided you with this info, you can explain to the receptionist that you are looking for a clinic that can offer it's patients a payment plan, as the clinic you initially went to didn't offer it ( this may or may not be necessarily true).It will make you seem less of a cheapskate/shopper, if you present it this way and the staff will be happier to help you with your request.
Just so you know which ever dentist you go to, will charge you a consult fee again and may want to see the xrays you had taken at the previous dentist.You can have the dental records and xrays transfered to your chosen dentist, once you decide who you will go with.
When you ring ask lots of questions like how does the payment plan work, min.amount it can be taken up for, how long it can be stretched out to 6-12mths, min. repayments, frequency of these and how experienced the dentist is.
What ever you do do not leave them too long, they will only get bigger, painful and more expensive.You seriously don't want to fork out $2500+ on a root canal and crown for a single tooth.
Sorry about the long post, good luck with it all.
Have a look at this site:
https://www.smile.com.au/treatments/dental-dentist-filling-t…
Half way down you will see a drop down list to look at prices for Queensland.
It's $77 per year for a single person with no waiting periods.
I used them a few years ago and for an extraction but I only broke even. At the time I remember thinking that I would definitely use them again for more expensive work (in fact my girlfriend is about to use them for a root canal and will save around $700).
The only thing is you need to use one of their dentists but in Melbourne at least there are heaps around.
All the best!
P.s. If nothing else that link provides a really easy to understand breakdown of not only the item numbers and cost of the procedures but also of how the procedure is carried out in general. My girlfriend found the root canal page particularly calming.
Watch Mr Bean at the dentist - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0cZK1c0wpE - and do it yourself. :-)