Pay It Forward

[ToothDoctor]

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I love my dentist! He has been so encouraging and supportive of my decision to enter the profession. I was at his office yesterday for an exam and cleaning. He informed me that from this point forward, he will not take one penny from me for ANY work he performs while I'm in dental school. He said he knows that students clean each others teeth and I could get any needed dental work done at school, but the choice is mine. Obviously, I'm going to take him up on his offer. I was so taken a back when he offered this to me. At first, I felt like I couldn't let him do that. He then told me that his dentist did that for him when he was in dental school, so he was just paying it forward! He said he knows I will do the same in the future. I was wondering if anyone else has had their family dentist offer their services free of charge while in dental school?

 

[s.mutans]

That is really nice! I get a profesional discount from my endodontist and G.D. But more importantly, I get a lot of advice from them. And I was just applying to school when all the work was done. But for the whole 4 years of dental school? That is great! A lot of college based dental insurance companies are not any better than the typical coverages. During dental school, will you have all work done for free? I highly doubt it though! For medical ethics/cost reasons, I am sure the dental schools charge dental students or their insurance for work done. Right? or would dental teratment be freen as a dental student?

 

[tinker bell]

My dentist is very nice to me as well, she does all of the extra care for my teeth, and etc, and told her secretary to put it down as Professional courtesy. She is also a UCSF alumni, so we'll all become alumni of the same school.....That will be fun to go to alumni meeting together.

 

[DrJeff]

The "professional courtesy" rate gets used quite alot in my office. Anyone in the dental field will atmost(and even then not very often) see a materials only charge(i.e. lab bills for crown and bridge and the cost of the bleaching kit), and alot of the local medical docs will have the same coutesy extended to them (we do charge ER docs(generally 50-75% of the regular fee) since they can't make bills "disapear" like M.D.'s in other fields can. Hey, I even extend it to my 2 dogs vet(he had a root canal and a crown done for the crown lab fee only last year and one of my dogs had to be declawed(very weird autoimmune disease against her nail beds) and all I saw a bill for was anesthesia and pain meds last year. It's the old, you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours principle. Plus it goes without saying that if I feel absolutely miserable and want to go see my primary care Doc, that one phone call and I'm seen within and hour or 2 and I won't see a bill for anuthing more than lab fees, and vise versa if he, or any of his family has a tooth problem, they're in my schedule ASAP. In my practice, we have that type of arrangement with internists, primary care docs, general surgeons, opthamologists, OB/GYN's, Pediatricians, a Pulmonologist, a GI Doc, and a Urologist. Plus with the network they have, any other doc we need access to is just a qucik phone call away, and they know they have the same situation when they're in out office.

My partner and I have our first soon to be a dental student (likely class of 2008) in the practice now and if she wants us to do any work while she'sn school, it will be on the house. Although, I will admit that there is a litle bit of classmate bonding that does occur when you get to learn how to do a cleaning on your classmates that I reccommend that nobody miss out on.

 

[gryffindor]

Originally posted by s.mutans
are not any better than the typical coverages. During dental school, will you have all work done for free? I highly doubt it though! For medical ethics/cost reasons, I am sure the dental schools charge dental students or their insurance for work done. Right? or would dental teratment be freen as a dental student?

At our school, all work done by students for fellow dental students in the pre-doctoral clinics (the dental students who don't have a DDS yet) is mostly free. You have to pay a lab bill or material's cost if you get a crown, denture, or bleaching kit. However, you need work done in the post-doc clinics (the students who are trying to earn their specializations), any discounts you get are upto the program director. Unfortunately, those clinics are not as generous at our school - ortho charges dental students full price, as does the implant clinic.

I've had plenty of classmates work on me - cleanings and some operative. I've also done lots of work on fellow classmates and plenty of classmates as well. I must say though, there are some classmates I'd totally trust and others I would never let work on me.