One way to save on dental care is to use the services of a local dental school. This is what I am doing. I am going to have all four wisdom teeth plus three other teeth extracted. The wisdom teeth are bony impacted so I will be under IV sedation during the surgery. The total cost for this is $830. It is hard to find an average price for this surgery but I did find one site that stated the average cost of oral surgery is $3,000. If that figure is correct than I’m saving over $2,000 from the regular cost. To make this an even better deal since my surgery is complicated it won’t be done by one of the students but by one of the teaching doctors.
I think this is an even better deal than dental insurance. When checking out dental plans I saw that most of them had a $1,000 a year maximum benefit and you had to wait a year for major procedures. This would make dental insurance at a traditional dentist a more expensive option for me. Plus I want to get my dental problem fixed now rather than waiting a year.
The main drawback of going to a dental school is that the procedures take more time. Both of my diagnostic appointments took 2-3 hours. You do get more individualized attention though and right now I have more time than money. If you have a local dental school and need dental care you should look into this option.
I use the dental school too because it is a great way to save money. I get my x-rays done by the dental students and then take them over to the expensive dental office where I would have had to pay $40 or more. Good to see someone else does this too!