San Diego Housing Market News and Analysis

First question is "what is a deep cleaning"?

Never heard of the term and I have a dentist that misses the oppurtunity to upsell me.

CE

I have a couple of good friends who are a dentist and hygienists, and we've discussed this one a few times.

In most instances, "deep cleaning" and similar procedures is just a revenue source for the dentist. I fell for it when I was young and didn't know better.

If you've had the dentist for a while and trust them, then perhaps you really need it.

If you aren't sure, get a second opinion.

In any case, you should probably floss more. ;)

I floss everyday.I think it has to do with me being immune suppressed right now and skipping out on dental visits for the past year or so.

Deep cleaning means that they will get into the gums and do some cleaning.

The dentist also wanted to apply sealant to the rest of my molars to prevent caivities.

I don't know...Sometimes when I walk into the dental office, I feel it's worse than walking into a car shop.
Well, at least for me. A car shop, I know when the personal is bullshiting me....

I can't tell at a dental office these days what is really needed and what isn't sometimes.

This is perfect timing as my wife just called me a few minutes ago fuming with respect to her chat with our dentist's office. The office sent to our house a running ballance for 3-4 months, and my wife called about a detailed bill. As she pushed a bit more, the office changed the tune as in "ohhhh, nothing is due, your insurance covered it".......

I feel like I'm going to a CAR dealership.....everytime.

YES, I've been upsold to deep cleaning as well (that makes me feel a lot better right about now).....

Yes get your "deep cleaning" this weekend for $99, but you better hurry. Holy S dentists are the new auto repair shop. I had "deep cleaning" it sucked, very painful, I think it took four visits and I will never do that again. My last visit for cleaning I had the full X-rays done and can you believe it, they found a crown that should be replaced, because you know "it is not a matter of if it will go bad but when!!! I am not going to do the crown. They also wanted me to come in every four months for cleaning instead of six, no thank you. I have learned to say no at the dentist office.

I wish I could get a "lifetime deep cleaning" plan similar to getting a lifetime alignment at a tire center :(

Maybe instead of fixing my own cars, I should outsource that and figure out how to fix my own teeth....

Minor t-jack. Been to the vet lately? Dog needed shots. Vet does a 'office visit' which amounted to a quick once over of the animal and left. Tech returned and walked me over their computer screen showing the vets recommendations. $900 worth of tests, special food, teeth cleaning, vitamins, etc. I said, no...I just came in for shots. 'We' unchecked all of the 'necessary' services got the shot and left. Still $150. Talk about upselling.

Folks will scrutinize every line on a plumbers bill yet will pay a doctors bill without blinking. Guess I should have been a doc.

A point to note is that if you are going on vacation somewhere you may consider getting a cleaning done there....I had my cleaning done in Quito, Ecuador for $40 and I honestly can say that the dentist was far better equipped and knowledgeable than any dentist I have gone to in the USA. He even measured my gums with lasers and I have never even seen such an instrument over here in the US.

Time to outsource some of your medical expenses too.

I think I paid 100 or 150. But there was some expensive mess they sold me w it total 334.00

worth it

http://shotsforpets.com/index.php?option...

we don't believe in vet visits. the dogs just get their yearly vaccinations from above. the dogs get their daily exercise and are not overfed. and if ever a tumor starts growing, there ain't gonna be any surgeries or chemo.

we use to frequent a dentist that would recommend a deep cleaning after every couple of years as well as regular cleaning every 3 months. recently we switched over to someone else and no mention of deep cleaning and regular cleaning is just every 6 months.

unfortunately most dental outfits are simply reduced to an autoshop experience, sad but true.

As much as I agree with everyone else on dentists/upselling (which I also try my hardest to ignore), your dentist might be telling the truth about this one. My dad had a crown go bad and had to have a second root canal (I don't even know how that was possible, since I thought they basically got rid of your tooth when they did a root canal). He was tried to ignore it for a month or two, since he figured he had a crown and clearly nothing could be wrong, but he was in incredible pain. And it was SUPER expensive to fix - much more so than just replacing the crown would have been.

My dentist gives me a list of what should be done after my X-Rays, he tells me it's not critical but it should be done. So I will get it done but I don't like having to much done at once.

I paid $200 (contract rate thru Aetna Vital Savings) for one in January of this year. The whole thing took about and hour and 20 minutes.

There's medication they sell at like 50 bucks a tooth. Antibiotics ... Probably a ripoff. But my mom has periodontal problems beyond belief so I'll pay anything.

Still I am doomed

This mightvsound weird but I love getting my teeth cleaned. Do it 4x a year. I love having this woman pick away at all this crud for so long. I like the feeling of healthiness afterward. I just live getting my teeth cleaned. Sure it hurts a little ... I even like that.

It's my main medical thing.

For me. My question I guess was misdirected, because it wasn't strictly about cost. I guess the way
I should have asked it is is it absolutely necessary.

I posed this very question to the dentist, because I explained to her that I am on chemo every week, and my red/white counts are all over the map...

If my red count is low, I might not clot that easily. And if my white is low, I might end up getting into serious problems if I get an infection.

Dentist tells me that I should do it anyway, and that she could give me antibiotics.

I guess I asked the dentist to try to get a feel for whether dentist really felt it was that important to do it...

I checked with my oncologist who said it probably is fine, but wanted me to do a blood test the day before.

Hence why I'm weighing whether this is absolutely necessary or not...And whether this was just another attempt at an upsell.

When I got the estimated bill, in which $250 would be my porition along with a $50 deductible and that my portion represented 20% of the cost..I was like, wow..Doing this deep cleaning is expensive. Wondering if it's needed. At the same time, dentist was trying to sell me to apply sealant to my remaining molars too...

Typically a deep cleaning is charged per quadrant so you may want to find out if that is for the whole mouth or per quadrant.

You gum pockets would need to be over 4 millimeters to necessitates a deep cleaning

Sealants may be applicable for children but are an unnecessary up-sell for an adult.

Hope this helps. Wife is a dentist.

That is now a different spin to things.

Deep cleaning is a purely preventive measure against peridontal disease. So not absolutely necessary. Especially if you have been getting routine cleaning couple of times a year, which is standard of practice and covered by most dental insurance plans completely. If you have not been getting routine cleaning over the last couple of years, that may be why your dentist is inclined to do the deep cleaning. other option may simply be more frequent routine cleaning, ie every 3 month instead of every 6 month.

Certain dental procedures are high-margin and "scalable" because the dentist doesn't have to perform the work themselves.

These procedures have low material costs and they can be delegated to a $25/hour hygienist, but they still charge the full rate of a highly-educated professional.

It's like a lawyer delegating the work to a paralegal, but still charging the full attorney rate (which I believe is illegal in the law profession.)

My oldest is finishing a degree in "dental hygiene" before deciding if she wants to pursue being a dentist (gulp!) or some other job that DH will let her get a foot in the door with. Plus it's a skill sort of like plumbing/welding/HVAC.

Try scoping out any local dental schools or DH classes at a local Community College. They always need "patients" and you can either get 'free' or very low fee ($20) cleanings/evaluations.

As a victim / patient of my oldest I should warn you it can take longer than a normal visit since they work in stages and have to have the attending 'verify' their work as they go along.

It was a bit awkward and I tried to avoid it but her previously scheduled patient backed out on her. They show no mercy if your patients back out and the "patients" have no compunction at all about just not showing up after promising to be there. Miss enough clinic hours because of this and you flunk. No returns, no refunds. Thanks for playing.

I've actually PAID strangers just to show up. The school shes in takes no action at all in finding patients it's totally up to the student which sucks IMHO. And yes, I've PAID for translators for the ones that don't speak/write English. Please lord, just let her pass. :-/

That sounds like a horrible program. :(

Best of luck to you and your daughter. I hope she graduates soon!

As for the "deep cleaning," Mr. CAR and I have decided that it's basically a scam. We've gone to a couple of dentists who tried to sell us all sorts of services, but when we got a second opinion, they said we didn't need any of it. On the next visit to the dentist who seemed honest, they were trying to sell us on the scaling/deep cleaning, too.

I really miss the days when dentists simply made sure your teeth and gums were healthy.

They still exist. Our dentist hasn't upsold us on anything and we've been with their office for well over a decade.

This thread makes me appreciate them even more. :-)

Would you mind PM'ing me their info, please? We're desperate to find a dentist like this.

Two words:

Water Pick

Comin' atcha