KingRevolver
Born Rambler
Holy shit!
I hadn't been to the dentist for a long time and decided it was time for cosmetic dentistry.
Well this dentist, a woman, had all of the newest equiptment, and I was amazed at the way they took x-rays and showed them to you almost immediately on a laptop in 3-D no less.
Her technicians did all the work until it came time for her to come in and look at my teeth. She would wiggle this tooth and poke at that tooth, while all the time a tech was writing down the info. I mean I was in her office chair for over an hour.
Finally she re-enters the room, sits down next to me. and is going to give me an "estimate" of what all this work is going to cost me. I'm trying to calculate in my head about how much this is going to cost me. I come up with a figure of about 5-6 grand. She gets a read out from a computer, looks it all over, thenhits me with the 'estimate".
I'll tell you, it was a good thing I was lying down in the chair when she told me the amount it was going to cost me. $39,700!!!!!! I looked at the figure 3 times that was on the "estimate" sheet she gave me. At first I thought it was $3970. When I asked her if an extra "0" was added by accident, she told me that it was correct. Now I'm not the type of guy that gets intimidated by professionals like some people are at times. So I looked her straight in the eye and said, "Do you realize that I could buy a small Mercedes for that kind of money?" She then told me to go into another room and her office manager would work out the details, and maybe they could take off a $1000 or so.
When I get together with her office manager, she already has out forms for me to fill out to "finance" the dental work. I told her I'd never finance getting my teeth getting worked on, and besides, the price was way out of line and I'd never pay that much. She had already assumed that I was going to get the work done, and gave me a bottle of antiseptic mouthwash, $25 a bottle, so I could use it before my first appointment.
I repeated to the manager the same thing I told the dentist...that I could buy a small Mercedes for what they wanted to charge me. When she kept on pressing me to get the work done, I just stood up and was getting ready to leave, but this broad wouldn't give up on having me get the work done. I finally just told her that I would never spend that kind of money to get my teeth worked on, no matter what. She told me to go home and think about it. I told her I had already thought about it, and there was no way I was going to spend that kind of money on my teeth.
I finally started to walk out, and she asked me where I was going. I told her I was going up the road to a Mercedes dealer, and the only thing I was going to think about was what color car I was going to buy! To this day, I keep getting postcards for Xmas and my birthday from this dentist.
I realize that I hadn't been to the dentist in a while, but could costs have gone up so much in about 14 years? How could the average person possibly afford work on their teeth with these prices? Being in the San Diego area, Mexico is not far away, and many people that I started asking about prices told me that going to Mexico was the only way to get lower prices for dental work.
Did I just happen to go to the wrong dentist, and there are others out there that don't charge as much. I used to have a Beverly Hills dentist when I lived there, and his prices weren't anywhere near the price that this dentist want to charge!
Cleaning and a filling cost me 38 bucks the other day.....
X-Rays
Three Cavities filled
Non-surgical periodontal therapy
$780 out-of-pocket.
kinger, you pay cash pal? i did and got a discount. they love when you pay cash. that way they don't report it to the irs.
it was supposed to cost $220 but since i paid cash it was $160. it says right on the receipt here cash discount. all doctors and dentists are tax cheats.
:lock:
I agree to always pay your dentist/doc with cash when you have out of pocket, and yes, most are HUGE tax cheats.
kinger, you pay cash pal? i did and got a discount. they love when you pay cash. that way they don't report it to the irs.