Why is a dental fee different from one practice to the next if the treatment is the same?
One of the things that I can say to explain this simply is that if we're working on patients and doing something cosmetic, such as the front and center of someone's mouth, the lab I use to make cosmetic restorations really matters. This is a procedure that patients will wear for many years, and we want it to hold up and look beautiful for the long term. There is a real difference in our labs and materials.
In our office, when it really matters like cosmetics, we want to use a lab that is very experienced. They communicate well with us and use the best practices, techniques, and materials.
In a situation like this, we actually incur a much higher lab fee to provide a better, more predictable result for patients. That's just one example of why a fee may vary from one office to the next.
Even within our own office, that fee varies a little bit based on what tooth we're working on. If you apply that across the board in dentistry, we have options with the techniques, materials, and the level of experience our team has in working with patients.
All of those factors may dictate what fees we must charge to maintain an extremely high standard of care. These factors benefit the patient because it saves you time and money in the chair, especially if your dental work holds up for a longer period of time. You're happy with it and not having to replace it prematurely.
There is a big push right now in dentistry to drive prices or fees down through materials. However, our philosophy is to always use the best materials because that benefits you, and we take pride in what we do. When you walk out of our office, we're proud of what's in your mouth, and we wouldn't put anything in anyone's mouth that we wouldn't put in our own.
How does technology and the quality of the materials affect the cost of a dental procedure?
Oddly enough, technology often helps drive the price down because it makes things more efficient, accurate, and of higher quality. We like to invest in technology for those reasons. It's more efficient and higher quality, which benefits us and, more importantly, benefits the patient because you don't have to take off work as much or rearrange your schedules. Regarding materials, generally, technology helps drive the cost down. However, as time goes by, research improves materials.
In dentistry, we look at the long-term investment patients make in their mouths. It would be ideal if a small problem with your tooth could be fixed to last a lifetime, but anything man-made has an expiration date. As time goes by, research allows us to create better materials. As materials improve, there might be a higher front-end cost. Better materials can make something more expensive, but hopefully, technology offsets that by making things more efficient and effective. This helps balance out the cost, resulting in a gradual rise in cost over time in dentistry.
Can a dentist's training or specialization in an area of dentistry cause a difference in a dental fee for a particular procedure?
The answer is yes. Let me use root canals as an example. Many of you have either had a root canal, know someone who has, or have heard of one. It's a procedure often done by general dentists, who are trained to do it in dental school.
However, if you really like doing root canals and that's all you want to do, you can apply for a specialty program in endodontics, which focuses on root canals and associated procedures. With extra training, you can handle more complex procedures that require more time, hence a higher fee. This is true for those specializing in braces or Invisalign, such as orthodontists, or oral surgeons or periodontists who work with gum disease and other specialties in dentistry.
What role do things like location in office staffing or maybe even in office technologies play in generating dental fees?
In general, technology does cost. We have to purchase it, which can cause the fee for a particular procedure to be higher. For example, when comparing implants versus crowns in the Chattanooga area, there's more technology involved in implants. Therefore, implants tend to have a higher fee than crowns. That's because implants involve more parts and pieces.
When it comes to staffing, as people gain experience and become more proficient, they can move up in their careers, which might result in higher income. This is true in dentistry. As people graduate from dental assisting or hygiene school, they start at a certain pay rate, but as they gain experience and expand their skills, they command higher incomes. If you're in a well-established office with low turnover and good stability, the staff will likely earn more.
For the patient, this means a better experience. We maintain a balance, bringing people along in their career while having experienced staff to handle complex procedures. Fees need to cover the staff, but it's more indirect. Training for dentists is also built into the cost. If you're a dentist placing implants, you've undergone additional training. Continuing education is essential to us. We stay updated on the latest techniques, materials, and technology, enhancing your experience by providing you with the best care by well-trained professionals.
What should patients consider when comparing dental offices and their fees?
When you enter a dental office, you should assess the atmosphere, the people, and their ability to communicate with you. Dentistry is complex, with multiple options for treatment. You need a dental professional who can discuss these options clearly.
It's vital to understand your problem and the solutions available. Trust is crucial. You want an office that explains things truthfully. Confidence in their competence is also important. These factors are more significant than fees. While you don't want to feel overcharged or undercharged, it's important to find an office where you feel comfortable. The best isn't always the most or least expensive. Visit the office and ask questions.
We offer free second opinions. We aim to help you understand your symptoms and treatment options. We want you to feel informed and confident in your choices. Our goal is to ensure you know what's happening in your mouth and why we recommend certain treatments. We want you to be on board with your oral health decisions and feel good about them when discussing them with others.
Why might a treatment plan be different from one dentist to the next dentist?
The reality is that there's more than one way to skin a cat, so to speak. Here's the deal. You have black and you've got white in dentistry, like it's always one procedure or it's always another procedure, but sometimes we have to use our own experience and maybe we're taking into account what we know about the patient in order to judge what the best solution is for a problem.
What we know is that maybe a cavity that starts out small is always a filling, but as it grows, it gets bigger and bigger. And as it does, it needs a little bit more aggressive treatment. Eventually, it gets to a point where you would need a crown to preserve that tooth. Where exactly does that fall? We kind of have some rules in dentistry as to what that looks like, but you have to take a few other things into account.
For example, what's the age of this patient? What are their habits? What success have they had with fillings in the past? You could have one situation with a patient and take the same situation with two different people, but one person is a grinder and a clincher and the other person eats soup at every meal. Not really. Most people don't, but let's just say the potential to have a treatment plan that varies a decent amount from one dentist to the next.
Our practice and our rule of thumb is to be as conservative as you can for the patient and for the tooth. If this can be restored in the most minimal, least invasive way, that is our primary objective, but you may have other practices that disagree with that and their primary objective could be something different. Therefore, the treatment plans are going to vary.
How can a dentist's philosophy, whether they're proactive or they're conservative, change with treatment plans?
Exactly that. Sometimes doctors are thinking a little bit more in terms of long-term prognosis. We're going to be proactive. We're going to help prevent something from falling apart later on. And then sometimes doctors are thinking a little bit more in terms of the today, the now. This is the most conservative way that we can solve this problem. Now, how long will it hold up? We don't really know because we can't predict patients' habits. Somebody that's not grinding and clenching today could start grinding and clenching in a year or two or in five years or 10 years because a lot of our restorations in dentistry are going to last 5, 10, 15 years or more. Being able to predict what the habit or medical conditions, whether direct or indirect, are going to influence a person's mouth.
Sometimes doctors may be a little bit more proactive and be thinking a lot more about the future. And then some are a little bit more conservative and say, "Well, we can't predict the future." In our case, in our office, I like to think that we're both conservative and proactive. Some people are hard on their teeth and you just kind of know, okay, in order for them to keep their teeth the rest of their life, we've got to protect these at all cost. So you're a little bit more proactive with somebody that's hard on their teeth. Then you have the other side of things and people who tend to do pretty well with their teeth and not have too many problems and they don't seem to be hard on their teeth. You can tend to be a little bit more conservative with them.
For us, it's more of the patient determines, you know, being conservative or proactive versus just our own personal dental philosophy. That kind of comes down to us sitting down, talking to you guys, getting to know you guys, seeing what your dental history is. How much dentistry have you had in your lifetime? How long is your lifetime? How old are you? Somebody that's 70 years young and they've only had a few things done in dentistry, they've done pretty well for 70 years, versus somebody that's 20 years old and had a good bit of work done on their adult teeth. They didn't make it too long with their teeth. You want to take those things into account. You might be a little bit more proactive with that 20-year-old that's already had some things, but rightfully so, because you're helping them preserve their teeth into the future. You just have to be a little bit more proactive with them. This isn't necessarily a good thing or a bad thing. It's more or less just really sitting down with the dentist.
Maybe not having a hardcore stance of always being conservative or always being proactive. Maybe being somewhere in the middle and letting the patient dictate that is probably the best course of action for us in dentistry.
In what ways do imaging technology and dental tools influence a patient's treatment plan?
All of these imagery tools, I guess I should preface this. There are some dental offices out there that are just so dated and their equipment is dated, their techniques are dated, and so on and so forth. Does that exist? Sure. But now with everything from a modern standpoint, these all aid us in being able to detect disease and conditions early on.
A high-tech office, we invest in technology that helps patients be as conservative as possible with their teeth. If we can detect things much earlier, it's way less invasive and it's way healthier for the tooth in order for us to detect something at an early stage.
Think of it like cancer. I hate to bring up cancer, but think of it like cancer because if you have stage one versus stage four or whatever level your cancer has developed, you'd much rather be trying to treat some cancer at an earlier stage than a later stage.
The same is true with dentistry. We want to be able to detect these things at a very early stage so that we can keep things small, simple, easy, and less expensive.
How does a patient's long-term oral health goals affect the dentist treatment plan?
This is a great question and here's why. Think about somebody that's about to retire and they want to get everything in tip-top shape to be able to go into retirement without an income and be living off their retirement and maybe not have any big surprises. They could get a little different treatment plan than somebody that is essentially going into college. A treatment plan and long-term health could play a different role.
Let's take somebody that is going into college and they want to have straight teeth. Maybe they don't have a job and they don't have family support to do braces or Invisalign. Maybe the long-term goal for them is to get through college, get out, get a job, and then start having some braces or Invisalign work done to straighten their teeth and give them a pretty white smile.
Circumstances in people's personal lives do play a role. If somebody's long-term oral health goal is to go without teeth or to save their teeth, based on what's going on in their mouth, based on their age, based on all of their personal circumstances, that would also dictate which path we would go down to come up with a treatment plan that's going to help a patient achieve their goals.
For example, if somebody is 45, 50, or 55 years old and they're wanting to keep their teeth, but they're having some problems, maybe we've got to stage some things. Maybe we've got to phase some things. Maybe we need to break things up into payments to help them achieve their goal. If treatment's going to take a while to get through, maybe we've got to do a little work to maintain until we can do the permanent fix. Absolutely, patients' long-term oral health goals really dictate what we're going to be providing a patient from a treatment plan standpoint.
What advice do I have for a patient who received two different treatment plans from two different dentists and they don't really know what to do next?
Well, this is what I would do. Go to a third one. No, I'm just kidding. This is probably what I would suggest. There's probably one of those offices that you felt connected with more. You felt like they sat down, listened to you, and took the time to put together a treatment plan that seems like it suits you. In some of the other questions, we've talked about some life circumstances that could influence a treatment plan for a doctor to give to a patient.
What I would suggest is, which office do you feel most comfortable with? Which office do you feel knows you and really tailored and personalized the treatment plan to fit what you want and your needs? They listen to you and they're looking out for your best interest and your best long-term. It's probably not that either treatment plan is wrong or unethical or illegal. It's probably that one treatment plan is based on raw data that the dentist thinks you need to have done and another is based on a dentist who went in, looked, talked to you, understood what was going on, and then explained to you, showing you on pictures or x-rays, and then explained the why.
I recommend this and why I'm recommending it. I always say that in life if you can just tell people why behind it, they're much more ready to do whatever it is. In a situation where they're pointing out a cavity, both dentists agree that there's a cavity. This dentist says, "I think it just needs a filling." This dentist says, "I think it needs a crown." But why? Why do you think it needs a crown? Why do you think it just needs a filling? I would ask those questions and you could go back and have a second opinion with the same doctor again if you wanted and just say, "I'd like to ask a few more questions about my treatment plan." They'd be happy to sit down and talk to you a little more in-depth. Hopefully, through that, you're able to ask the right questions to get good answers and a good understanding of why they chose the treatment plan they did for you.
Then maybe that'll make you feel more comfortable with which direction you're going to go moving forward. If you're here in the Chattanooga area, you can always call us and we'd be happy to help you and sit down and talk.
I realize that might be a third opinion, but if a third opinion is what you feel is right, there are lots and lots of dental offices out there. As far as you went to two out of the tons of dental offices and maybe you didn't have a good experience, maybe one doesn't have more of a preference for you. Well, there's always a third one. At the third one, you can say, "I've got one dentist saying this, I got one dentist saying that, and I don't know what to think of it." Maybe that third dentist can help explain the first two dentists and also explain what their recommendation is.
If you’re ready to schedule an exam or would like to learn more about our services, we’d love to hear from you. Call us at (423) 592-7676 or email [email protected]. We look forward to caring for your smile.