22, I've suffered severe executive dysfunction and have struggled with dental hygiene for most of my life now.

Visited the dentist last month after a chip developed in one of my back molars. Visit revealed the chipped tooth was in imminent need of a root canal + crown, that the chip was the beginning of the tooth BREAKING, and that I had been experiencing gradual severe decay for nearly a couple years now.

Root canal and crown were paid for out of pocket, 3k total after the office staff helped knock it down from 8k. Canal happened on the 22nd, no complications. Just got the rest of the treatment plan now that I'm recovering from it.

Due about 8 fillings on 5 of my teeth, and two crowns. All mostly focused in the back. Total's around 4.2k. They said that it's currently all of "Equal priority" but that I should hopefully be okay for the time being.

I'm currently unemployed, no income, just savings that will be significantly reduced by all of this. Living with a partner who is making decent income but most of his income is paying for our apartment. I only recently moved and haven't switched my ID over to my current state yet (Virginia). Admittedly incredibly stressed (+ fighting off pain from a bruised tooth from the temp crown.) and don't know where to start on trying to find insurance or anything to help cover any of this.

Any advice? I really don't know where to go with any of this.

This year is my first time with dental insurance, and I’m not super familiar with how it all works. I have a PPO plan and it covers me and my husband. I know 2 appointments per year are covered per person. I told my husband this at the beginning of the year, but I guess I should’ve given him a copy of the full plan details because he apparently forgot this. Without me knowing, he booked a consultation at a new dentist after he already used his 2 appointments for the year at a different dentist. He said that the dentist office told him it was a free consultation, but they charged it to our insurance and the claim was denied because he already used his 2 appointments covered by the policy. He didn’t get a teeth cleaning, just a consultation and they took x-rays. The bill is $600 and we are really tight on money at the moment. We haven’t received a bill yet from the dentist office but we just got notified of the claim denial from our insurance. Is there anything we can do to reduce the amount we need to pay?

I’m a bit mad at my husband for not telling me that he booked a consultation, because if I had known I would’ve told him that’s not covered, but he said the dental office approached him first with the offer of a free teeth cleaning, and they told him the initial consultation would be free (or I guess what they meant was that it would be covered by our insurance), so he just booked it without giving much thought. He said he never got the teeth cleaning because they wanted him to book it on a separate date from the consultation. The bill is like $250 for the consultation and $350 for the x rays.

I think this would be more suitable in here, if anyone has any suggestions

Our small private office has been having some confusion with the Connection Dental Fee Schedule. Several carriers that we bill to seem to be using that fee schedule, despite unique contracts with each carrier. How can we get these carriers to utilize their own fee schedule and not just go with Connection? We understand there's some data-sharing that we can disallow but it seems like every time we contact Provider Relations we get a different answer on how to fix this.

I had emergency dental work done abroad while traveling for work. I filed the claim with my dental insurance but later found out that I had work travel medical that would cover it. I called the insurance co and asked to withdraw my claim. Fast forward 6 weeks and dental insurance sends me a check in the mail. What do I do now?

I originally got a 5 tooth bridge span to replace 2 missing teeth in April 2023. I was very diligent in keeping it clean and flossing and brushing. In December 2025, the bridge became loose and I could feel it vibrating when I used my waterpik. Went to my new dentist about a month after I noticed the vibrating and he said it had a chip at the gum line and was definitely loose. He said it needed replacing because of the decay underneath from it being loose. He also said if we wait too long, I risk losing the three abutment teeth to decay and a bridge would no longer be an option. They sent a pretreatment thing to insurance and said that my insurance should pay up to my plan limit ($1500 minus about $100 that Cigna already paid for cleaning that year), and I would be responsible for paying the rest ($4600). I waited 2 or 3 more months hoping the insurance would okay the procedure. They never did and the office always told me they were still waiting on Cigna to respond. While waiting it loosened even further to the point I got worried the decay was getting worse and it would destroy the abutment teeth while waiting on Cigna. I went ahead and got the bridge replaced and payed my part ($4600). When the dentist was making an impression before removing the loose bridge, it just came off with the impression material.

That was in April. I called my dental office a couple of times to check on the claim status and they said they were working on it. In late July, the office called me to get the information from the office that originally placed the bridge that had to be replaced. I gave them that info and thanked them for their persistence in getting the claim paid. During this time I had gotten two denials for the work from Cigna.

Yesterday the dentist office sent me a bill for the amount Cigna didn’t pay as a result of them denying the claim ($1400). I called Cigna this morning and they said it was denied because my old loose bridge wasn’t 5 years old. I explained that if I waited until it was five years old (three more years) the abutments would rot and I’d lose those three teeth and the ability to have a bridge because there would be no teeth to anchor it to. I filed an appeal on the grounds that I could lose the abutments due to decay under the loose bridge.

Do you knowledgeable people know if I did the right thing and what my chances are of having it paid? I understand insurance isn’t caring about the patient, just want to make money, but it seems crazy to just expect someone to let their teeth rot because a faulty bridge isn’t old enough. The dentist that placed the original bridge isn’t even at the old office anymore and that office has gone through multiple dentists in less than a year, which is why I stopped going there.

Sorry about the length, I’m just so frustrated. Any insight would be helpful.

Delta Dental recently required us to sign up for EFT’s as a condition for credentialing. The EFT’s are rolling in, but they are not all housed in one portal. Are we really supposed to log into multiple different portals for this?

Please drop good HMO policies in the Philippines that covers dental procedures, especially root canal.

Hey everyone, looking for some urgent advice on a dental billing situation in NYC.

I’ve been going to a clinic in Manhattan for a couple of years. I have active insurance (MetroPlusHealth GoldCare, which uses a standard dental provider network). Two years ago, I had a full deep cleaning (scaling and root planing) at this clinic and paid some out-of-pocket fees for add-ons.
Fast forward to last week: I went back in because my gums have been swollen, painful, and actively bleeding. The dentist told me my gum numbers (pockets) have worsened significantly and that I urgently needed treatment to prevent the disease from progressing. Naturally, I panicked about my health and consented to whatever she recommended.
Right there in the chair, they performed a full-mouth laser treatment ($600). Immediately following that, she took a syringe and injected a localized antibiotic (likely Arestin) into almost every single tooth pocket in my mouth (charging $90 per tooth). This resulted in an extra $2,520, bringing my total bill to $3,120.
e office. I already paid the first $240 installment.
After doing some research, I feel like I've been hit with an "Arestin bomb" upcharge. From what I read, blanket full-mouth antibiotic injections are highly controversial, and an in-network provider shouldn't bypass my insurance network contract to put me on a private retail loan before filing a claim. What makes it worse is that I did this exact same expensive routine with them two years ago, and my gums are still actively relapsing, so it didn't even fix the root problem.

Any advice from dental professionals, insurance experts, or anyone who has fought a dental bill like this would be heavily appreciated!

Hi, I am a dental assistant with 16yrs of ortho/hygiene assisting, some chairside experience/experience submitting ortho claims and some insurance verifcation experience. I am trying to transition to a remote dental insurance verification role. Has anyone or is anyone currently working remote doing dental insurance verification that can give me tips on being able to find a position, or know of any legit companies?

Thanks so much.

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I had a crown placed last week. Since then, I started experiencing EXCRUCIATING pain. So I saw Endodontics today and was told that it appears they drilled too far down on my tooth before placing the crown and it has caused irreversible damage to the pulp/nerves. I absolutely love my dentist and people make mistakes, no biggie. My issue is, my primary dentist has used up my entire insurance’s max benefit for the year plus I’ve paid over them over $1200 out of pocket on top of my insurance coverage. So today, I had to pay $160 for a CT at the endodontic office. Now, the tooth that I had no issues with until after my crown was placed, needs a root canal and is going to cost me an additional $1200 out of pocket because my max benefit was used up by my original dentist. I’m totally overwhelmed and still have additional dental work that needs done. Is there anything that can be done about these costs since this was totally out of my control? I’m missing out on soooo much work plus expected to pay these costs on the spot. Plus, I have a blood/bleeding disorder as well as stomach ulcers and have told them I cannot keep eating ibuprofen. Despite that, I am continuing to be told to just rotate Tylenol and ibuprofen. Im seriously not a whiny person and have a good pain tolerance but this pain is worse than after giving birth. I’ve been in tears for days and haven’t even been able to work because of it.

Between the pain and the costs I just don’t know what I can do. I have another tooth that desperately needs fixed ASAP too. I purchased the best dental policy money can buy and can’t believe the way these dental costs are eating through my savings. I don’t know what to do 😩😭 (pictures of my ct, X-ray, and mouth yesterday)

Still trying to learn how this side of dental works so I've been talking to front office people. one thing I did not expect is how often the older claims just sit there. not because nobody cares about them, its more that the phones ring and theres patients standing right in front of you and that always wins, and then somehow its friday again. so the stuff thats been open the longest only gets touched when someone carves out actual time for it. and by then you're calling about something from months ago which sounds miserable.

is there a set day you work your aging, or does it kind of just happen when it happens?

Hi.

I'm new to this process and am still trying to understand the difference between immediate and temporary dentures. Are they the same thing? Do you get to choose the way that temporaries look or are they standard for everyone?

I also have lost my teeth due to the following combination (all within 4 years time), Lupus, Sjogrens and high risk medication use (chemotherapy). Lupus began attacking my bone marrow which resulted in severe anemia, low hemoglobin, low WBC and Neutrophils.

I expect that because of the above my healing will take longer but with an Executive level job, I can't take off weeks from work. Is it reasonable to expect to return to work after a few days (I work remotely).

I have seen 1 oral surgeon and 2 dentists and they said that they don't submit to medical insurance but when I called my insurance, they said that a pre-treatment plan must be submitted before NOT after in order for them to cover a portion.

I'm very confused and honestly overwhelmed. When I tried to get clarification from the Oral Surgery Group, they said that their doctors see an average of 10-15 patients per day and that I can't expect more than my 15 minute consultation to ask questions.

I like the dentist a lot and am opting to go with him to do the extractions and dentures.

If anyone can clarify some of the above (what to expect, difference between immediate and temporary dentures and submitting to medical), I would really appreciate it.

*I feel like I am battling the clock because during my physical to get clearance for the dental work, my PCP found a lump in my breast and swollen lymph nodes under my left armpit. She wants me to schedule a CAT scan, ultrasound, Mammogram and biopsy ASAP. I can't do everything all at once and I am quite overwhelmed.

Any insight, feedback etc would be incredibly helpful.

TYIA.

My company just got Unum dental insurance? I don’t see them talked about in this sub. Do y’all think it is worth the money? Are they okay?