Question:
Looking for low cost dental care that operates on a sliding scale. Does such
a thing exist?
Answer:
Not sure what you mean by "sliding scale", but Western Dental has
a one time yearly fee of $35, whereby they pay your $50 deductible
(saving $15 right off the bat), and then they charge the insurance
company the "acceptable rate" and after the insurance pays, they
eat the cost of your 20% co-payment.
So basically, you pay $35 a year and thats all for basic services (cleaning,
x-rays, and fillings). Assuming you have a standard dental insurance
plan. Without insurance, I'd suspect they are reasonable.
I question the quality of their service though. I think they replaced
fillings that didn't need replaced, and the replacements may have since
fallen out. I should see a real dentist soon... Ouch.
I've heard that most dental colleges offer low cost services.
Quality is supposed to be very good, but you may have to wait
a while for an appointement.
Not really, There are many scams out there, many used to advertise that they
will accept the dental insurance payment as payment in full.
One thing to watch out for, as my ex girl friend warned me. there is little
oversight on what dentists do. One fellow shw assisted for would advise
crowns for any patient with dental insurance. He would also push push push
these things called night guards for $500 bucks.
I was told by two dentists that I needed a crown, I heard a German dentist
needed a patient to be available to work on for the California Dental Boards,
I would get a free gold crown if I qualified. He told me that I really
didn't need a crown, just a new filing. I don't believe he didn't want to
work on me or that the tooth was inconvienent to reach.
You can save about $100 by traveling way out of town. Some times you can
really save by going to Reno or the valley where overhead is lower.
I sometimes take my car to a Goodyear in Reno for big brake jobs etc
cause I can save a hundred or so, and the guarantee will be honored here
if anything goes wrong.
