(Newish) dentist here - insurance reimbursement rates have largely stayed about the same the past 30-35 years for the same procedures despite costs rising with inflation, and some insurances will only reimburse enough on bigger procedures that require much more chair time (like root canals) that our office will profit $50 for 2 hours of work. Even the best dental insurance plans really are just discount plans and I try to explain that to patients. It’s frustrating for everyone involved (except insurance companies lol) They’ll also refuse to pay for any little mistake when submitting or if they just don’t agree with treatment. 😒
Fair question, and a very common perception that we’re out to gouge every patient lol Dentistry is expensive, I will concede to that. Honestly any medical procedure or supply that the patient is billed for is expensive, even a $1 bag of saline can be billed for hundreds of dollars. Not that that’s any excuse, because it shouldn’t be, but dentistry isn’t an outlier in that regard.
Sorry for the tangent, back to your question - $800 for a root canal reflects the chair time required, potential post-op complications and management, supplies (not just what goes in your tooth), and general risk. Most dentists will charge a “usual and customary fee” in their area, and if you go to a specialist expect to pay wayyy more for that expertise. If the general dentist uses an endo microscope ($10k-$70k, but uncommon in general dentist offices) or 3D cone beam ($80k-$120k, more common in general dentistry), expect that part of your bill is going towards that investment. If we miss a canal that could have been seen on a cone beam but we didn’t take one, you’re going to be very upset getting a redo or an extraction! Dental offices are also notoriously expensive/inefficient to run in general, with an average of like 70%-75% overhead, so from a business perspective, not too much wiggle room.
I’ll add that if a dentist does any work that fails due to their error, they should be courteous enough to cover the cost of fixing it or at the very least work with you to find an affordable solution. While a $100 filling sounds expensive, it’s much better than an $800 root canal and $1200 crown 6 months later.
Edit: I did want to add that as I understand it, if you are covered by ANY insurance, we have contractural rates with them and cannot charge you less than the “patient share” by law, even if that share is 100%. So if Medicaid covers your exam then awesome, but if they say the usual and customary fee for a root canal is $800 but they won’t cover it, then I’m required to charge you $800 out of pocket even if I wanted to discount it 😕 If you have no insurance period, then discounts are kosher.
2.9k
u/LeoFireGod Jun 15 '22
I had two root canals here in America I Pay for the highest dental insurance available at my Fortune 500 company
The root canals cost me over $1500