I just saw my dentist and she told me that I have 2 cavities. She gave me an estimate of $136 total for the fillings WITH insurance. I thought this amount was absurd. It turns out that she is going to put the white fillings in and not silver. I have all silver fillings. Do you guys know if dentists still put in silver fillings? It would cost me $34 if I had silver fillings put in. Are white fillings just a way for dentists to make money? Should I find a dentist who does put in silver fillings?
Cavity Fillings
- Thread starter nimboo
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Hi,
If the cavities in question are on your front teeth (canines and incisors), the material used should be the tooth-colored resins, yes.
If the cavities in question are on your back teeth (molars and premolars), amalgam fillings are very well-suited for those indeed because it has good compressive strength and can tolerate a wet working environment if necessary (ideally the dentist wants to make sure the field is dry before putting in the filling though).
Tooth-colored resins can be used as well for back teeth, but ONLY IF the dentist can isolate the tooth well and keep it dry while it is being worked on. Moisture contamination while putting in the tooth-colored filling will cause it to fail very quickly.
HTH.
If the cavities in question are on your front teeth (canines and incisors), the material used should be the tooth-colored resins, yes.
If the cavities in question are on your back teeth (molars and premolars), amalgam fillings are very well-suited for those indeed because it has good compressive strength and can tolerate a wet working environment if necessary (ideally the dentist wants to make sure the field is dry before putting in the filling though).
Tooth-colored resins can be used as well for back teeth, but ONLY IF the dentist can isolate the tooth well and keep it dry while it is being worked on. Moisture contamination while putting in the tooth-colored filling will cause it to fail very quickly.
HTH.
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First you need to figure out why you keep getting cavities! Your dentist can fix the damage but it WILL happen again if you don't change the habits that caused it in the first place. If you're interested ask here and you will get more than you want to know about decay prevention.
Second, "white fillings" are more technique sensitive to place than "silver fillings". Composite can be kinder and gentler to the tooth and last just as long as amalgam, but they take more time to place well so a higher fee is charged. I would not let $102 make the decision for me.
No, we count on people's good intentions for that! (Yeah doc, I meant to get here sooner/start flossing/cut out the sweets but.......)
You should find a dentist you trust.
JMHO
Rob
But I don't understand why she can't just put in silver fillings! I don't care about cosmetics and I have silver fillings on other teeth done by diff dentists. I think it's a way to make money.
Dude $136 WITH dental insurance? That's absurd!
I don't know why I get so many cavities. I think it has to do with my teeth and not my eating habits...I brush and floss regularly.
Dude $136 WITH dental insurance? That's absurd!
I don't know why I get so many cavities. I think it has to do with my teeth and not my eating habits...I brush and floss regularly.
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I don't know of any supragingival lesion where amalgam would be functionally contraindicated. Any upperclassmen/practicing dentists want to chime in on that?
If the price is that big a deal to you, and you're not concerned with how it will look, you might as well get the amalgam. It'll last a good long while, and you can always get it replaced with a white filling later on if it starts bugging you. It's not like dentistry is some sort of organized profiteering racket; we're just trying to make a living, same as y'all MD's. 😀
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Unless you have a RARE genetic disorder (you don't) you either don't remove all the plaque from your teeth or you have a diet high in sugar frequency or both. Cavities are not a mystery, at least not to dentists. Have you ever seen a person driving with streaks on their car where they missed the soap and water? They can say they just washed their car, but they didn't clean it. Before you let your dentist touch you with a drill make her spend at least 5 minutes showing you how to brush and floss. Better yet get the hygienist to do it. THIS COULD BE THE BEST SPENT 5 MINUTES OF YOUR LIFE THAT PAYS DIVIDENDS IN COST AND COMFORT FOR YEARS! It's not difficult but it is technique sensitive and there might be subtle mistakes you could improve on. Your dentist's number one responsibility is giving you the tools you need to avoid restorative care. The second step is decreasing the frequency of sugar exposure to your teeth. It's not so much the amount of sugar as how often you have it. The reason being is everytime you eat something with sugar in it, the bacteria go to work and lowers the pH in your mouth to the point that your teeth start "dissolving". This goes on for about an hour. It doesn't matter if it's a sip of Coke or a gallon. Three times a day your teeth can handle this "dissolving" and repair and recouperate well. More than that and you're at risk for decay. So eat what ever you want with meals but stay away from foods with sugar in it for snacks. (Foods with sugar= anything that tastes good)
To me $136 to keep two teeth from deteriorating into a mushy black stump of pain and infection is a bargain everyday of the week. Maybe the price is the same but you have a crummy insurance plan that won't pay for them new-fangled white fillings. Like I said either will serve you well. If one might be better than the other I wouldn't let $102 make the decision for me. It's all about what you value and priorities. Some people spend over $100 per month on their cell phones!
Nimboo please quit reading here because this is not meant to offend or inflame but for everyone else here is an abbreviated list of reason's you'll hear for why a person's cavities aren't their fault.
1. I've got soft teeth.
2. My whole family has soft teeth.
3. When I was pregnant the baby sucked all the calcium out of my teeth.
4. I was in an accident that caused all my cavities.
5. I took antibiotics/steroids/medicine as a kid that rotted my teeth.
6. The last dentist messed up my teeth (that one might hold water)
7. I didn't have dental insurance for a long time.
8. ?Anyone else?
JMHO
Rob
p.s. everything in dentistry is "to make money"
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Don't blame us dentists, people want technology and we provide it, and it costs money to get it. The real bad guys here aren't the dentists, but the greed loving mega profit insurance companies. The typically dental benefit yearly maximum hasn't gone up $0.01 since the early 70's! Not one dime in increased coverage for their subscribers! You're telling me that in their minds that there has been no increase in the cost of living since then? I think not! Insurance companies typically won't even think about paying a cent for dental implants, labeling them as "experimental". "Experimental" my a$$, there's about 40 years of solid, good research out there documenting their success. They have success rates over 95% long term which is much higher than the alternatives that they will pay for! The only things that insurance companies have increased over the years is their OWN PROFITS. In their eyes, they'd rather that you just had all your teeth extracted and dentures made, sice then their long term costs that they'll have to pay on you go way down. Now thats ABSURD!
100% diet here. Basically put their is 1 and only 1 type of bacteria that causes decay, Streptococcus Mutans. The short version of how it does it, is that each and everytime you ingest some sugars, those bacteria break the sugar down into acid. That acid is present for about 30 minutes before your saliva diliutes it(asuming you haven't had anymore sugar in that 30 minutes- if you have, start the 30 minute clock again!) The acid being an acid, it will decalicify(breakdown) your tooth structure. Repeat this process day in and day out over months, and if your sugar frequency exposure is higher than your body can fix the damage(recalcify the damaged tooth), you get a cavity, and we get to pick up the drill. It's as simple as that! The biggest dental misconception out there is that people get cavities because they have "soft teeth", no, no, no. All they have is a poor diet. Limit the sugar to a few exposures a day, brush and floss, and our drills saty holstered.
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Three things:
1. Tell your dentist you want amalgam. She may have a good reason. If she doesn't have a satisfactory explanation for why she doesn't want to do it; find someone else. Pretty simple really.
2. Uh...huh... the old "soft" teeth routine. Dude, unless you have some bizarre genetic disorder, your teeth are just as resistant to decay as the next guy. It's your hygiene; it's always the hygiene. If people would figure that out instead of blaming it on soft teeth and genes all us dental students would be selling tires upon graduation.
3. Lastly, dental "insurance" is a joke. The whole notion of insuring against something like dental care is ludicrous in the first place. Real insurance functions by finding hundreds or thousands of people who are willing to jointly shoulder the risk of some highly improbable event occurring. For example, a house fire. The odds of that happening are pretty slim, but if ten thousand people agree to pay $30 a month to insure against that improbability there will be more than enough money available to replace the homes of the 2 or 3 who were unfortunate enough to actually have a house fire. Shared risk.
Dental care, on the other hand is pretty much a human necessity. Everybody needs a dentist at some point. So if this is going to happen to everybody who has dental "insurance" where is the risk sharing phenomenon that makes real insurance useful? It doesn't exist. What happens is you end up paying just about as much or more for the insurance and copays as you would for dental care itself. Only difference is the dentist gets screwed cause he has to lower his fees to be a provider and the insurance company gets paid for doing nothing. Don't get mad at your dentist for trying to make a living, get mad at the insurance company that is scamming you out of your hard earned money.
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If only I had a dollar for everytime I've heard one of those!
#8 in my neck of the woods is residence in a certain area of one of the surrounding towns(extremely poor). I've actually heard about 10 patients say the cause of their cavities is that they "live in Ballouville"
BTW Rob, when's the last time you went through an entire day without hearing atleast 1 of those??? I honestly can't remember. Today I heard #'s 1,2,5 and 7
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Oops, I type too slow, I guess. Dr. Jeff and Dr. Rob already posted the same things I had to say while I was typing it out and they said it better. Oh well. 😀
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Friday.
But we don't work on Friday! 😀
