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Bargain Hunting Gone Wild!

September 24, 2006 on 8:05 am | In Nationwide Dental Benefits, How To Save Money |

Bargain Hunting Gone Wild!

There are some of us who shop around for everything. We clip coupons, ask for discounts, try to find that “buy one get one free” deal, and the list goes on. You know the type. We are everywhere. We try to find the best product at the lowest price, what’s wrong with that? Nothing really. We may be irritating to some. But to a few, admired!

Why is it then, that when it comes to dental plans the search for discounts stop there?

You know what I’m talking about right? We have searched high and low for a great dental discount plan, figured out just how much money we’re going to save by using this plan over anything else and then, right at that crucial point - we just throw that dart at the dartboard, pick a dentist that is conviently located and whammo - we’re done! That’s it. No rhyme or reason other than we have to pick a dentist so we pick one close to home or work.

I realize that for a few, the dentist you pick is because you’ve been seeing that dentist since time began, he or she knows your teeth and the teeth of your entire family. Ok. I can grasp that concept. But what about the rest of us? Who avoid dentists at all costs? Those are the folks I’m concerned about. And I am one of them.

My mom is one of them too.

My mom has dental INSURANCE (through her job) - mind you this is not a dental discount plan. (To learn more about the difference - please read this post). She choose her dentist because he is close to the house. Good enough reason right? Read on.

Well, my mom needed some major work done. A couple of root canals, an extraction or two, some cavities filled and she hadn’t yet deceided whether she wanted permanent implants or a bridge. She also wanted the top front teeth (about six of them) redone so that they were straight and pretty looking. So, she did the next logical thing. She made an appointment with her newly selected dentist and off she goes to get this work done or started anyway.

This particular dentist is thourogh and even went to the trouble of giving her a “dental plan proposal” for all of this work. She proudly walked out of his office, proposal in hand, anxious to get home and review this proposal. The proposal was detailed and gave amounts for every bit of work she needed done. It even included what her insurance plan would pay for, so the $37,000 figure that she ended up with was her out of pocket expense, not the total cost of work to be done.

Did you read that right? Did I write it correctly? THIRTY-SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS! Yep, you sure did, you read that exactly right and I wrote it correctly too! You also read this right - that was her out-of-pocket expense because payments from her insurance plan had already been figured in. (Which amounted to about five thousand dollars).

My gut reaction shocked me! Mostly because it had NEVER occured to me before this. I said, “Mom, you are NOT going to pay $37,000 to this dentist without shopping around first, right?” She sorta looked at me with that deer in the headlights look. Like, huh? Shop around for a dentist with better prices? People just don’t do that. Especially not me!

I guess the general assumption is that dentists all charge the same fees. How insane is that? I’m guilty of it, don’t get me wrong - but that is definately crazy.

Think about it for a minute. I got in a car accident once and my own insurance company had me go to three different body shops for quotes to get my car fixed. Seems reasonable. So, I got three different quotes - key word there is different. They were all different. Body shops don’t all charge the same fees. They may live by the old “usual and customary” rate sheet - but some will definately push those limits, hence I had one really high quote, one “ok” quote and one that was lower than the other two.

Back to my crazy thinking. Why would I not automatically assume that dentists charge different fees? I think it has something to do with the fact that they are doctors really and who ever heard of shopping around for a doctor? I don’t care how much my doctor charges I want the best health care I can get. But that is a different blog topic all together. So I will try to stick to my point. If I apply that same reasoning to shopping for a dentist, then I guess I’m stuck in the water. However, I don’t apply that same reasoning with respect to dentists. So, I’m out of the water!

Back to my mom and her situation for a moment.

After that lost glaze that had come over her when I asked her if she was going to look around for better prices, we had a long discussion about it. It seemed crazy to her at first to actually shop around for a dentist. After we spent some time talking about the pros and cons of not shopping around, she finally agreed with me that it was definately in her best interest to at least find out if she could get the same work done for less money.

She shopped around and guess what? You know what’s coming right? She found out that she could get the exact same work done for less than HALF of what her dentist wanted to charge her.

The next logical question, in my mind anyway - is ok, we’ve got the price down to something I can almost swallow. Now, we need to figure out who can do the work the way I want it done. Or, in this case, the way my mom wants it done. Most dentists have before and after photos in their office of work that they have performed. It is not that difficult to see if the work they do is in line with the quality of work I or anybody else wants done.

Now it is just a matter of selecting the dentist with the right price and quality of work I like. Are there exceptions to this “bargain hunting gone wild” thinking? Yes, of course. First thought that comes to mind is if I’m in severe pain and I need ANY dentist who can see me at two o’clock in the morning! Other than an emergency scenario though, I’m pretty stuck on my die hard “shop for a dentist” mind-set.

You can search for a discount dental plan AND search dentists right here.