Pediatric dentist $$

cgator14

Hello, It's time for my 3 year olds dentist appt. A pediatric dentist in our area said it would be $150 for a child visit. Does this sound expensive or normal? She is not currently covered under our insurance Thanks!!

CareBear0607

Our pedi dentist is covered by insurance and ours charges $150.

ss+el

I'm pretty sure that's about what ours was before insurance.  
Find out what services that is for. We unwittingly ended up paying OOP for fluoride.
If you have fluoridated water, see if skipping that treatment will bring the bill down.

Cherryblossoms07

I would see what they do for $150. We have seen two pediatric dentists (we moved) and both charges about $150 (before insurance). However, what is received is very different. At our first dentist DD's teeth were cleaned at every visit. At our new dentist he has still to do more than look in the kids' mouth and count their teeth (the kids have been seeing the new dentist for a year and a half). DD is 4. It feels like such a waste of time and money when we got so much more for the same amount before. I don't know that I would be willing to spend $150 out of pocket for the less than 5 minutes my kids spend in the chair to have a quick glance taken at their teeth.

WhitePicketFence

Our pediatric dentist charged $93 for DD1's last checkup and $50 for DD2 as it was her first visit and he didn't do as much as with her sister. They were  covered under insurance though so we didn't have to pay anything OOP. I 'm in a LCOL area so I think $150 sounds about right depending on where you live.

emsrdh03

See if they offer any discounts for self pay patients.  I know all the offices I've worked for have discounted fees for patients without insurance.  It also depends on what services they're doing, for an initial exam, cleaning, x-rays and fluoride treatment $150 seems pretty on par.

emsrdh03

ss+el said:

I'm pretty sure that's about what ours was before insurance.  
Find out what services that is for. We unwittingly ended up paying OOP for fluoride.
If you have fluoridated water, see if skipping that treatment will bring the bill down.

The fluoride in the water benefits the adult teeth that are currently forming.  The fluoride in toothpastes, rinses and in the topical treatment you get at the dentist benefits the teeth currently in your mouth.  They serve two completely different purposes.

dande2129

emsrdh03 said:

See if they offer any discounts for self pay patients.

This.

With DS1, I didn't have maternity coverage. I know that prenatal leads to larger bills, but each office visit, I received a 30% discount than what they would charge an insurance company. The savings added up quickly.