On Supposedly Free Cleanings
Jul. 17th, 2009 09:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebMy employer offers two dental plans. One costs three times as much as the other, but they are both affordable. Both offer free cleanings, according to both the literature and the representatives at the benefits fair, so I've always picked the cheaper one.
What's confusing to me is that I always pay $85 for cleanings (except for a few years ago when it was only $75).
One idea I had was to switch to the other plan and see what they charged me. I'd have to switch for a whole year, so that experiment would cost me $240 in premiums. I've been getting those cleanings 2 - 3 times per year lately, so if they became free, that would save me $170 - $255. Or they might not really be free with the other company either. Risky experiment.
This morning I called my dentist's office. First I confirmed that they accept both plans. Then I asked how much a regular cleaning would be under each plan. She couldn't tell me that unless she looked at the specifics of my plan because there are so many varieties of plans.
So then I asked her how much a cleaning would be if I had no insurance at all. $89.
"That's interesting," I said. "Maybe I shouldn't be getting insurance at all because my cleanings have been costing me $85." So then she asked me what kind of cleanings I've been getting. And I told her I've been getting the kind that have a "perio maintenance" charge of $45 and an "antimicro irrig/qua" charge of $40.
And that's when I learned that I am not getting regular cleanings. I am getting some other more thorough kind of cleaning for people with bad dental habits. The no-insurance rates for this cleaning is $135 + $42 = $177. So my insurance is actually saving me $92 per cleaning, which is certainly worth paying $120/year for.
There are actually (at least) four levels of cleanings. There's a regular cleaning which you get twice a year. Then there's the kind I'm getting which you get four times a year. (I started at four times a year when I started going to the dentist again, but they have been telling me I'm doing a good job and scheduling the next ones four or five months afterwards.) Then there's the "full mouth debryment" which is a medium-level cleaning. And then there is the "deep cleaning." I have gotten a deep cleaning before, so I used be an even worse loser.
Still, someone should have told me that there was an additional higher plane of dental excellence for which to strive. Yeesh. All that you're-doing-great you're-a-good-girl business was crap.
Well, now I can start asking questions like what will it take for me to start needing just regular cleanings and what the expected date on that is. Just asking may encourage them to let me make the switch.
And so now I'm wondering about wisdom tooth removal again. The cost with current insurance is supposedly $15 - 135 per tooth, depending how messed up it is, and mine are messed up. The cost with the other insurance is 20% of the total price, whatever that is. The internet says that extraction costs about $150 - $350 per tooth plus there will be other fees like for X-rays and sedation.
I actually got a quote 3.5 years ago (back when my cleanings were only $75). I had the same insurance company then. The quote showed UCF (usual customary fees) of $325 per tooth extraction with a patient payment of $243. That's way more than this year's supposed maximum of $135. In addition, there's $50 for "oral surg s" ($30 payable by me) and $311 for "intraveneou" ($180 payable by me) for a total Debbie charge of $697.50.
Two of my wisdom teeth have not come through, and the other two didn't start coming in until my thirties--these latter are the ones recommended for removal. At the time of the estimate, one of these still had only half the top surface sticking out of my gums. Now the whole surface is sticking out, though you could only get a really good grip of the tooth on the front half. Still, it may be an easier job, now.
I also got a copy of my latest X-ray (a year old). One tooth looks pretty well lined up and the other one is bashing its head against its neighbor. Based on what I see in the mirror now, I don't see how either tooth could still be at that crazy of an angle; the bashing may at least be higher up on the neighbor tooth. So although I have aged and gotten worse at healing and more likely to have bad side-effects, my teeth (at least one) may have gotten significantly easier to yank out. Maybe not enough easier to charge me less (my old estimate shows the same charge for both, even though one seems clearly easier), but maybe enough easier to reduce the side-effects significantly. So maybe this is the year.
I also wonder, why don't they just yank the neighbor tooth? It looks a bit easier--wouldn't that still solve the problems? But no one ever talks about that.
What's confusing to me is that I always pay $85 for cleanings (except for a few years ago when it was only $75).
One idea I had was to switch to the other plan and see what they charged me. I'd have to switch for a whole year, so that experiment would cost me $240 in premiums. I've been getting those cleanings 2 - 3 times per year lately, so if they became free, that would save me $170 - $255. Or they might not really be free with the other company either. Risky experiment.
This morning I called my dentist's office. First I confirmed that they accept both plans. Then I asked how much a regular cleaning would be under each plan. She couldn't tell me that unless she looked at the specifics of my plan because there are so many varieties of plans.
So then I asked her how much a cleaning would be if I had no insurance at all. $89.
"That's interesting," I said. "Maybe I shouldn't be getting insurance at all because my cleanings have been costing me $85." So then she asked me what kind of cleanings I've been getting. And I told her I've been getting the kind that have a "perio maintenance" charge of $45 and an "antimicro irrig/qua" charge of $40.
And that's when I learned that I am not getting regular cleanings. I am getting some other more thorough kind of cleaning for people with bad dental habits. The no-insurance rates for this cleaning is $135 + $42 = $177. So my insurance is actually saving me $92 per cleaning, which is certainly worth paying $120/year for.
There are actually (at least) four levels of cleanings. There's a regular cleaning which you get twice a year. Then there's the kind I'm getting which you get four times a year. (I started at four times a year when I started going to the dentist again, but they have been telling me I'm doing a good job and scheduling the next ones four or five months afterwards.) Then there's the "full mouth debryment" which is a medium-level cleaning. And then there is the "deep cleaning." I have gotten a deep cleaning before, so I used be an even worse loser.
Still, someone should have told me that there was an additional higher plane of dental excellence for which to strive. Yeesh. All that you're-doing-great you're-a-good-girl business was crap.
Well, now I can start asking questions like what will it take for me to start needing just regular cleanings and what the expected date on that is. Just asking may encourage them to let me make the switch.
And so now I'm wondering about wisdom tooth removal again. The cost with current insurance is supposedly $15 - 135 per tooth, depending how messed up it is, and mine are messed up. The cost with the other insurance is 20% of the total price, whatever that is. The internet says that extraction costs about $150 - $350 per tooth plus there will be other fees like for X-rays and sedation.
I actually got a quote 3.5 years ago (back when my cleanings were only $75). I had the same insurance company then. The quote showed UCF (usual customary fees) of $325 per tooth extraction with a patient payment of $243. That's way more than this year's supposed maximum of $135. In addition, there's $50 for "oral surg s" ($30 payable by me) and $311 for "intraveneou" ($180 payable by me) for a total Debbie charge of $697.50.
Two of my wisdom teeth have not come through, and the other two didn't start coming in until my thirties--these latter are the ones recommended for removal. At the time of the estimate, one of these still had only half the top surface sticking out of my gums. Now the whole surface is sticking out, though you could only get a really good grip of the tooth on the front half. Still, it may be an easier job, now.
I also got a copy of my latest X-ray (a year old). One tooth looks pretty well lined up and the other one is bashing its head against its neighbor. Based on what I see in the mirror now, I don't see how either tooth could still be at that crazy of an angle; the bashing may at least be higher up on the neighbor tooth. So although I have aged and gotten worse at healing and more likely to have bad side-effects, my teeth (at least one) may have gotten significantly easier to yank out. Maybe not enough easier to charge me less (my old estimate shows the same charge for both, even though one seems clearly easier), but maybe enough easier to reduce the side-effects significantly. So maybe this is the year.
I also wonder, why don't they just yank the neighbor tooth? It looks a bit easier--wouldn't that still solve the problems? But no one ever talks about that.