Welcome

Welcome to my changemysmile blog. This will keep you up to date with many things that are happening within the world of cosmetic dentistry. Please visit the links to the right of this page, if you are thinking of having cosmetic treatment then the 'i-esthetic' link will prove most useful to you. Thanks for visiting and I hope to welcome you back soon. Mark

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Why is dentistry so expensive?

We get asked this question a lot, and in real terms yes it is expensive. But what about in relative terms?
A bit of background first, I run a dental laboratory, we make crowns, bridges, veneers etc. A dentist decides on the course of treament for you, he cuts the tooth down and takes an impression, this is then sent to me. I then make a mould of your mouth from the impression and make the restoration on this mould. It is then all sent back to the dentist for fitting. A dentist is my customer, but to me, you the patient are the consumer. Although I charge all my customers the same price, they each have their own pricing scale and charge the consumer, you, varyig amounts.

I would say that an average crown from one of my dentists would be approximately £700. Sounds a lot, £700 per tooth. If you needed 6 front teeth treated with crowns that would be £4,200!!

But wait...what else could you buy for £4,200 that will be used 24hours a day (many people grind their teeth a little at night), for 15 years, that is on permanent show and says something about the way you look?

I would say not many things; even a car would not last that long, under those conditions!

So all in all I think the RELATIVE cost of dentistry is good value, and worth spending money on. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!

A crown that costs £100-£200 (from a dentist) will not be the highest quality, no matter what you are told! I will make about 6 crowns a day to a high standard, if you pay £100 for a crown the laboratory technician that made it is likely to be making 20-30 crowns in a day...I will leave you to draw your own conclusions!

If you wish to find a good dentist then visit our website www.changemysmile.co.uk on the 'new smile' page fill in the form and you will recieve a list of dentists that are able to help you. My personal contact details are there too and I am always willign to speak with anyone who needs help.

Please visit this page again soon, why not book mark it for future reference.

Thanks,

Mark

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

If I was to charge you £700 to take a photograph of one of your crowns, you'd probably laugh me out of the office. But if I tried to justify it by saying my camera cost several thousand pounds as did the lens I would use with it, and that my computer and software to process it were another 3 or 4 thousand pounds, you would still think I was trying to rip you off. Well, like spectacle frames, I think a crown is way way over priced and certainly, like my photograph, not worth the money.

Anonymous said...

Please remember that everything is relative! If a person values their teeth THAT much but doesn't want to spend a fortune then they need to see their dentist REGULARLY. Little wonder then that more expensive procedures are called for as a result of neglect! People wouldn't think twice about spending $1500 on their car, entertainment system, boat etc. We place our own value on things that are important, I for one want to have my teeth for life!

Anonymous said...

Too long have dentists charged ridiculous prices.. In my opinion, yes quality is important and we forget how important our teeth are. However, when your charging £300+ for a tooth extraction and up to £55 pounds for cleaning teeth (my dentist) it all becomes a bit silly really. These are cowboy prices, half the time made up on the spot as to how 'difficult' the dentist may percieve the task. £25 just for the dentist to look at your teeth and £10- £15 for an x-ray? I mean, the times we are living in call for a little compromise here. This profession (as most professions are) is too interested in charging ludicrous amounts of money to people that have no other option but to pay it. Lets face it, its either pay up or go down to the garage and scope out the chisel and hammer isnt it? And the dentists know this, so they can charge these stupid prices. This issue needs to be dealt with because its getting pathetic.

Anonymous said...

OK I'm from Canada and here to just have a checkup is 60$ , 25$ per an x-ray , cleaning 45$ even with insurance I'm still paying 20$ , not a bad price but then you take int to account if you do have a filling that needs work it takes three months to get in and get it fixed, which by that point even with proper dental care the issue becomes worse, in my case I've been seeing three different dentists over the course of 3 yrs to try and get in as much as possible to fix what i could I've now bee referred to a specialists (102$) a consult, and suddenly I'm looking @ a 3k bill. for teeth that i had asked to be3 looked @ and i was told they could get looked @ later and well it's later and here i am no extra $ no extra dental (500$-102$ BTW before you ask ), so before you go quoting oh poor me i pay this much in tuition, equipment blah blah blah. think about this, if you were not a dentist would you not think these prices were insanely high yourself? and to be honest there is no type of assistance as even on social assistance the dentists are not required by law to accept the govt's dental assistance forms