the Price of Emergency Dental Care

In August of 2007, I had to have an emergency tooth extraction. I had dental insurance, but there were no in-network dentists in my area who were taking regular patients. Instead, I went to a dental clinic that accepted emergency patients half a day each week. The tooth had begun to abscess, so I went a week before the clinic to my family doctor for antibiotics. Without that, I would not have been able to have the tooth removed.

I arrived early on the day of the emergency clinic and waited for about an hour to be seen. A very brief medical history was taken, to exclude conditions such as diabetes, hepatitis and HIV, then exactly one x-ray was taken of the affected tooth. The dentist referred me to another clinic for a root canal, which I promptly refused.

When the extraction was performed, I was given a local anesthetic and the tooth was pulled using a tool that wraps around the tooth to make extraction easier. During extraction, the tooth broke and several pieces were left inside. The dentist assured me that these pieces would work their own way out.

As I had mentioned before, I did have dental insurance. This particular office was in-network, so my insurance paid 90% of the bill. That means the original charge was about $320 for one xray and one extraction. The clinic was able to bill be for my portion of the charges after they received payment from my insurance company.

I've received better service, by far, almost everywhere I've gone for dental treatment. I felt like I was being pushed through the system like something on an assembly line. The good news is that the extraction was successful, there was no infection and the remaining pieces of tooth have caused me no trouble.

I made the mistake of not getting in with a regular dentist as soon as I got my dental insurance. Be sure to have a regular dentist that you feel comfortable with and who does take emergency cases. If you or your insurance company are going to pay that much for treatment, you have the right to be treated well.