keel

I had my 2 front teeth pulled this week and it cost me $650.

It's weird having to wear a denture for a few months till I can get my implants.

Keel

old.sparkles

Sounds doubly painful

keel

The pain mainly starts when I pay for the next treatment.

All up about $12,000. for the full treatment.

Keel

old.sparkles

Ouch. Can you get insurance that includes dental, or does that still have a gap?

kitty4

I just had an abscess, it wasn't so obvious as no facial swelling but I had toothache and asked dentist to pull it. Anaesthistic wouldn't work because of the infection. It doesn't work in infected tissues apparently. I had several injections and everything went numb except the tooth and my heart was racing from the adrenaline in the injections! Dentsit said it must be infected. After a week of antibiotics, it numbed as it should and it is gone - what relief!
Now on the road to some implants and lot of major work etc. $13,000. Seems it isn't such a bad price compared to what I read on here. My extraction cost me $136.00. I am on a dental plan and use that when I pay to reduce the fees than claim what I can off my private health insurance - for what it's worth (which isn't great consdering the premiums). Altogether makes it a tiny bit more affordable though.

stuckinblighty

12 grand... Thats immoral.The cost of dental treatment is a disgrace here yet no one seems to bat an eyelid at the bills they get confronted with....bloody strange.
Of all the things that piss me off about australia dental costs top the list.one of the richest countries in the world and most people cant afford to get a filling done! Smacks of the usa to me.

Shameful.

Lee :-(

ABCD......

Q: What's the highest paid occupation in Australia ?

A: Dentist !!

You can check some dental prices at: http://www.smile.com.au/dental-denti...s-prices-costs
This used to be Noble-Dentists

spouse of scouse

Lee, I agree with you about the cost of dental treatment, but I don't think you'll see many people totally unconcerned about the charges. The thing is, if you need treatment, you either have to cough up the money or let your teeth rot - apart from getting your treatment in another country I don't really see any alternative.

keel

Not as big a gap as I've got in the front of my mouth now.

Seriously though my dentist said that unless I had really expensive insurance this treatment wouldn't be covered as its elective not necessary.

A few people have said to me to go to Thailand as it's a lot cheaper but this treatment involves about 6 trips to the dentist chair as there has to be a certain pause between treatments for infections etc to die down before the next stage.

I've just had 6 weeks off work as well looking for a new job so I'm not sure when I'll be able to afford the rest of the treatment. I might be wearing this denture for a couple of years.

Keel

spouse of scouse

I really feel for you Keel, it's horrible to be stuck with a partial denture because dental implants are so bloody expensive I seriously thought of going to Bali for mine, much cheaper travel from Perth than Thailand. There are some really good threads on Trip Advisor that give a lot of useful info about which clinics are good, and which ones to avoid. I worked it out that it would be cheaper to get the implants in Bali, even with airfares etc factored in, but chickened out in the end. It's a long way to go back if something goes wrong.
Best of luck with finding a job that you love, and that pays heaps so you can get your teeth back!!

wannabees

i recently paid almost $500 for a filling and an extraction! AND she cut my lip in the process! which has left a permanent lump on the inside of my lip...wont b going there again! Nothappy.com!

fish.01

Yes, the dentist can be expensive. In case it helps anyone I've been looking at changing plans lately so have been checking out prices last night.

My plan will cost $248/month (family, corporate cover) for basic private hospital cover (no birth stuff needed anymore) and "extras" (glasses, dental, massage, physio etc) which includes dental at around these rates:


General dental: Checkups/Clean/Scale, Fillings etc

Get 90% of all costs back with "unlimited" claims.

Kids gets 100% cover (no out of pocket) for all general dental until they are 25. * In Vic and SA it includes major dental as well lucky buggers.

For example, I was told the usual check/clean/scale thing for an adult will leave me $17 out of pocket. This is actually worse than my current plan that gives two free cleans per year for the whole family.


Major Dental: Veneers (My dentist quote recently: $950), Crowns etc

Set benefits so different for each thing. Seems to be around 60%-70% of cost back from the things I've checked so far, with a limit of $1100 paid out to each family member per year.


Note: It is corporate cover so things may vary a percentage if your company doesn't offer a corporate plan and you have to use the non-corporate equivalent. Note also that you have to use a dentist in the insurers network to get these prices. Most are so not really a big issue.

Blossom

$300+ for one extraction.

kitty4

Very frustrated yesterday. Had all my appointments to have partial dentures made to wear while I wait for implants. Next step is extractions and dentures straight in. As dentist is on leave until end of this month, can't get that done until 1st week July - next financial year. I wanted to pay for the dentures now as I have gone through the process of having them made and so I can claim what I can from my private health insurance in this financial year but they have said I can't and have to pay for the dentures after the extractions and they won't issue the ''code'' for the dentures which allows me to claim this year (although have had to pay 50% deposit up front). So will lose benefits for this completeley for this year which would have been up to $1000. Whether it's a case of bad timing or beauracrasy or both, it's very annoying. Dentures have been made for me, no use to anyone else.

koalakim

Having just booked with my Mum's dentist for a check-up when I'm back in Blightly, I managed to crack a filling on Sat and had to go to the dentist here. Thinking it was a fairly old filling they told me it was one they had done not 2 years ago!!! I did want to ask if it was under warranty although they didn't charge me as much as last time so maybe I did get a discount.

They've now suggested this tooth needs grinding down and crowning so that's a pretty cent or two. Maybe that's a good excuse for another trip to Singapore, have a great dentist there for when I'm in town for a few days. He did me a crown for half the cost here and he's been brilliant in fillings and repairing another broken tooth even coming in on his day off to check that everything was good because I wasn't there long.

Anyway, I've had nothing but trouble with my teeth since coming here, is it something in/not in the water? I know I'm getting old and so are they as well but it's amazing that Aussie dentists always find something the Brit ones don't.

I'd agree if you want to make it rich then be a dentist here. Last time I went I paid nearly $600 for an extraction and a filling ....the one that cracked!