I didn't want to hijack somebody else's thread, but there was an article earlier about Health Tourism in Blighty...I have, thankfully only had cleaning and scaling work in the family since our arrival in Canada, until this morning.

My 14 year old son had a problem as one of his first teeth at the back of his mouth had broken, but the new one had not fully emerged, my husband took him to the dentist this morning and staggered back with a bill for $426.00 this was to remove the tops of three teeth. No freezing etc was needed, the dentist basically popped them off and they were in and out within 15 mins. I am not suggesting that we should have tried DIY...but this does seem steep.

Should I be shopping around? I'm willing to discuss prices and negotiate for most things, but it had never occurred to me to do it with a health care professional.

I couldn't afford root canal work, if major dental work is called for in our family we're scuppered.

I'm scared of the price of veterinary services here too.

Do your jobs not provide dental coverage?

Also, $426 does feel a bit steep, but honestly I'm not certain.

My last visit, which was 45 minutes for cleaning, scaling, polishing, and a checkup from the dentist cost me $250, which was completely covered between my and my husband's insurance through our jobs.

If ever a thread needed Biiiiiiiinnnnnkkk's input this would be it. (IIRC her other half is a dentist.)

I have dental coverage through my healthcare plan offered by my employer. It doesn't cover everything - cosmetic dentistry for example - and multiple claims on the same tooth can be disallowed. As I said on the other thread, I need root canal work on a molar which involves seeing a specialist endodentist. Cost - fortunately covered by my dental benefits - is $1300 or so. That seems like a lot for an hours work. Although the bloody toothache is enough to make me pay any price to get it fixed.

OH and I were talking about dental costs the other day, I need two crowns, cost to me after benefits $500 each. Surely the materials don't cost that much? It does seem to be a rip off business. I'm currently job hunting and thinking of possibly going full time (help me eek). If I go full time I will likely get proper benefits after three months, so I will be able to combine both my husbands and mine and not pay so much.

It's not as though the dentist actually spends time with a patient during check ups - one reason I'm looking for a new dentist is because the last time I went to my regular dentist, who has just opened his own shop, spent less than a minute with me, my cost after 80% deductible was for that bit of the check about $50. Some things just don't seem right.

My youngest daughter had her first trip to the orthodontist recently. We are now $8,000 lighter.

I am amazed that people don't ascertain the cost of treatment prior to having the work done. Do they do that when work is performed on their house/car?

I don't think I have ever had a client that didn't want a full breakdown of my fees prior to retaining me.

IMHO, the problem is that most people have insurance, so dentists will charge what the insurance will pay. If you don't have insurance, you get screwed.

I think $500 is about what my crown cost in the UK in the early 2000s, non-NHS and without insurance.

Was generally around 300-400 when I had a tooth pulled.

I can see why dentists have to charge a lot, they do have very high overhead, have to have expensive equipment, staff salary, and so on, so the prices I suppose have to be high enough to cover everything + provide an income to the dentist.

Same with Vets.

Medical doctors have the advantage of being paid by healthcare services so we don't see first hand what something costs like we do with dentists and vets.

Good to get an estimate by calling several dentists, some will charge more, some less. Most can't provide an exact charge though as there might be variables once the procedure starts.

Dead right.

As illustrated when your dentist sends an automated email near the end of the "insurance year" suggesting you have something done to use up what insurance is still available, even though they've not actually examined you to ascertain something needs doing.

Most provinces have a Dental Fee Guide too (although Alberta does not, so the insurance companies use their own version to reimburse what they think is fair).

Have a look for your own provincial guide and shop around to see what each dentistt charges or how near/far they are from the guide (I doubt anyone will charge less ) but there could be some variation in some costs.

Here's the one for Ontario - http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/p...es_dentist.pdf

Okay, so my husband just went for a normal checkup and cleaning yesterday. Here's what he paid:

1) Exam & Diagnosis - limited oral for previous patient (recall exam) - $50
2) Scaling - 2 units - $110
3) Scaling - 0.5 units - $28
4) Polishing - 1 unit - $35
Total: $223

He was there about an hour total.

I had exactly the same, plus we threw in a new upper mouthguard as I've managed to gnaw a hole in my current one. Cost of that seems to be around $400 plus.

My dentist is generally pretty good and will put things through first to see if they'll be covered, and what the percentage is. I remember the wisdom teeth removal being around $1400, and all but 200 was covered, that was on just the ex's policy (I didn't have coverage at that point) and I suspect now it would be completely covered.

we did have the breakdown of the extraction before we agreed to it (was a foregone conclusion though, as I wanted it done)

My husband's wisdom teeth I Think were about that, can't remember offhand. His coverage is at 50% and mine is at 50%, I think there was maybe $100 we were out for little bits of eligibility or whatever. But his was certainly similar.

And yeah, we also knew the breakdown beforehand. At least we did from his insurance company, mine is godawful with this sort of thing but he was having them out regardless so with mine it was just a fingers-crossed situation, lol.

Well with our children it was expensive (even way back when) & I rreckon with general cleaning & routine stuff + orthodontist, major gum work, repairs over an 18 year period (children at different ages) we were $25,000 sunk.Some of that costs was paid by employer group plan, but not everything & we still had the huge bill.

Canada dental is not like the NHS & yes extremely costly unless you have a dental plan through work which offsets some of the costs. Even the dental insurance is not all that great - reason being the premium versus the limits (co-pay) etc. Maybe check on-line & check out dental insurance to see what it cost, covers & how much co-pay.

for reference

https://www.sbis.ca/dental-insurance.html

I'd budget $150-$200/mth for dental costs for a family of four, across the board year over year, exclude in that orthodontist.

in New Brunswick the dental fee schedule

http://kiers.com/builds/nbdentalweb/...%20English.pdf

As for in Ontario (similar in other provinces) the ODA dont publish the latest fee schedule - yet I found this for reference

Dr. Ren Dentistry

To give you a general idea, see the full details in the link below, in page 12 onwards

http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/p...es_dentist.pdf

Your Ontario Health link is the same one I posted in Post #10.