I have gum disease.

Some of you may remember a topic I made 3 weeks ago about a $3000 dental operation I need, which I thought was only for fixing a broken tooth, but I just called up the dental office to talk about a few concerns I had, and was told the majority of the cost is for a deep cleaning, whereas the crown is only a few hundred dollars. I apparently didn't understand what a deep cleaning is or why I needed it, and now know that what I have is just flat out worse than a broken tooth.

The reason for letting my mouth (and everything else about me) get as bad as it is comes from an issue I was eventually going to make a topic about here, which I may do sooner than I planned.

If I may ask, how often do you floss?

Humble_Novice posted...

If I may ask, how often do you floss?

Basically never. I won't make excuses to it, but my mouth is very small, parts are hard to get to, and floss often gets caught between teeth, so I just have never made it a habit.

Are you going to get a root canal treatment as well?

Humble_Novice posted...

Are you going to get a root canal treatment as well?

I don't think that'll be part of the process. I've had at least one root canal before though. All my dental records are gone because the dentist I used to go to went out of business during the pandemic in 2020 and my memories of work I've had done are very faded.

As I tell everyone, double, triple check when it comes to dental work. I had a dentist tell me I had 4 cavities, and another dentist looked at my teeth and said "no, you just need to clean a bit better, there are no cavities".

A deep cleaning should not be 3 grand. I had a laser cleaning and it was like 300 bucks. Get a second opinion

Guh. One problem trying to get a second opinion is actually getting an appointment. I called a couple other places the day my tooth broke and neither of them had openings until January at the earliest. Should I just completely cancel this appointment and try finding a less expensive routine?

I went 20 years without going to the dentist and once I finally went, they gave me a whole mouth deep scaling and then over the course of 2 years, I had to get 8 fillings (most were just old fillings that needed to be removed and replaced).

Other than that, I'm pretty lucky I had no major issues. I now brush and floss twice a day and get my regular cleanings twice a year now. During that 20 year span, I only brushed once a day and never flossed. But I also stayed away from sodas and sugary foods that entire time so that probably helped.

The deep scaling was $900 and all the fillings cost roughly $2000 total and I had no insurance for any of it.

Edit: Looking at my paper work, it was actually 6 fillings for $1400.

From what I understand, deep cleaning is just teeth scaling. They take an ultrasonic scaling teeth instrument and use it to break down tarter and other hard debris stuck into your teeth and even deep into your gums. 3k for that? I paid no where close to that but I do have dental insurance.

I'm pretty sure they're lying their asses off. a regular dental cleaning barely costs anything(it's completely free with my insurance).

that 3k is for the replacement tooth. when I got my wisdom teeth out I also had to get a damaged molar out, and I asked them how much it would cost for a dental implant, and they said 1-2k to get it ready and 2-3k for the crown.

that was after not seeing a dentist for 15 years. they said I had 3 cavities that first visit, which I was surprised by, but then they also found 1 or 2 cavities at all 3 cleaning since then so I was just like...were y'all lying to me before?

I do have the paper work with everything laid out for what they said needs to be done with costs attached to everything. And I do have dental insurance; the $3000 is down from $5000. The original plan was to do the deep cleaning in mid-February and then the crown a few days after that. The current plan is do cleaning around the broken tooth to do the crown next Thursday (as a spot available during my my schedule opened up) and then the rest later. But the person I spoke to said I could even see about getting the cleaning elsewhere. It's just a matter of actually finding a place that can do it, and possibly for less.

what exactly is that "deep cleaning"? when I go for a regular cleaning they use a fucking water jet to blast the plaque off my teeth, then they use a flosser, then they brush and rinse. and xrays are included.

you can't get much more of a deep cleaning for teeth unless they're also bleaching all your teeth without notice, which I doubt

The deep scaling I got they had to use numbing gel on my gums and then scraped my teeth/gums so hard there was lots of blood and it was somewhat painful. I remember the little towel on my chest was covered in blood and my gums hurt for the rest of the day. It wasn't that bad but it's something I don't want to experience again. It was worse than getting a filling. It also took like 30-40 mins for just half of my mouth. They let me do half one day and half another day.