All I Want for Christmas Is My Girl's Front Teeth

November 14, 2006 12:03 PM

Dental Filter: What will it cost my girlfriend to cap or replace her dead front tooth?

The tooth has been dead awhile. She broke it as a teen and had a root canal, and after a few years it developed a discoloration. She can feel a cavity on the back side of it now. She is currently unemployed and she has no insurance.

We've been trying to get her in to see a dentist with a sliding scale, but they're fairly rare and very hard to schedule with. We don't want this to go on too long. I can cough up anything less than $1000 if I have to; past that and we're getting beyond my means. I can't put this on a credit card.

Dental offices will never give me even a ballpark on what this costs. I'd really like to know if this is something so amazingly expensive that we HAVE to go to a dentist with a sliding scale, or if this is a problem I can just throw some money at to make it go away.

She's been told it can cost up to $5000 to replace her front teeth (both are dead, but only one is discolored), but I think she might be thinking of the very high-end ceramic replacements. I don't know if that came from anyone with authority.

posted by scaryblackdeath to health & fitness (12 comments total)

Check local university dental schools in the area.
posted by jerseygirl at 12:08 PM on November 14, 2006

I actually just had this done to my front teeth (both broken as a wee lad, one now dead, the other not), so I'll just share with you my expenses. Obviously, YMMV.

Two front porcelain crowns, good quality. Dentist submitted a charge of $910/tooth to insurance, of which I ended up paying about $300/tooth out of pocket. I had to fight the insurance company to get them to cover the 60% they did, but that's another story...
posted by mcstayinskool at 12:17 PM on November 14, 2006

I've gotten one crown on a broken tooth and recently shopped around for more and $800-1000 seems like the going rate.
posted by mathowie at 12:33 PM on November 14, 2006

Marry her and put her on your insurance.
posted by thilmony at 1:05 PM on November 14, 2006

My dental insurance is worthless. But I have had 3 porcelain crowns put in. The first was $850 three years ago. The last two were $1,000 each about 4 months ago. Dentist's charges are plainly outrageous. But that is another story.
posted by JayRwv at 1:10 PM on November 14, 2006

My dentist does written quotes if you go in for a check-up (which run around $100). Perhaps you could see if you can find a dentist who will do the same.

I have a dead front tooth (Have had it for the last 23 years. Damn you basketball.) and he suggested putting in a post and bleaching rather than getting a crown. He quoted me $750CDN for this, last year. I still haven't done it because I keep finding better things to spend $750 on.
posted by Cuke at 1:28 PM on November 14, 2006

the $1,000/tooth is about the going rate. Strange, a little chunk of porcelain costs the same as a really nice bicycle or a decent beater car...

I've had some dental work done at my local state university when I was uninsured, and it cost about 40% what regular dentists were charging. But it took a hell of a lot longer, because professors had to keep coming out to check the work.

Two friends of mine have had dental work done in Mexico (specifically, Tijuana and Juarez). Cosmetic dentistry is a cottage industry of sorts in border towns. They report that the facilities/equipment were a little run down and dirty, but that the dentists themselves appeared consciencious, and the business ends of the equipment had been sterilized. I wouldn't do this unless the circumstances were very, very dire.

Finally, Perfect Teeth is a reduced-rate dental practice chain with locations in CO, AZ and NM. They specialize in people with no coverage whatsoever, and can be hard to get appointments at. You can also wait in line outside to see if slots open up when people skip appointments. Maybe you have a similar outfit near you?

Or, you could just whittle your own teeth from wood.
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 1:30 PM on November 14, 2006

I think I paid about $600 for a porcelain cap about three years ago. I think there was some insurance coverage, and the $600 was the difference between some god-awful metal cap and the porcelain.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 2:15 PM on November 14, 2006

Seeing you're in Seattle, have you tried the UDub Dental School yet? Granted that there's a waiting list, and it's going to cost some money, and your girlfriend will be a teaching aid, but it's still cheaper than private dentistry in this area.

My dentist quoted me north of $1000 on a replacement front cap. But the tooth in question has been gone for 20+ years, and there's already a post there. So, it may be more with the extraction. With my insurance, it's going to be $100-200 to do.
posted by dw at 2:52 PM on November 14, 2006

My wife (and I) just replaced one of her front-ish teeth with an implant for a lovely $4,000.

And we have insurance.

It took six procedures over seven months, and involved a dentist and an oral surgeon.
posted by 4ster at 6:13 PM on November 14, 2006

Just had my top middle incisors capped with porcelain and the ones next to them veneered for $6400 - but this is from a top guy, in NYC.
posted by nicwolff at 6:31 PM on November 14, 2006

Same boat as 4ster, wife's front tooth replaced with an implant. It had been dead for a while, and finally broke off; problem was, she was pregnant and then breastfeeding, and so had to go with a "flipper" plate until all that was over. Resulted in bone loss in the jaw, which required bone grafts and much healing time. About 5-6 procedures, and about $5000 later, she has a tooth that she could probably gnaw through a fire safe with. Just one, though.
posted by 5MeoCMP at 6:36 PM on November 14, 2006