<p>It’s not just that 11 is a large number of cavities. It’s going from one dentist who finds no cavities to another who finds 11. Either D1 is guilty of malpractice or D2 is a bit too aggressive. You can see from the responses that many find this a little peculiar.</p>
<p>New dentist just called. She’s send us the digital color photos AND the digital xrays. She seems very nice and said that we can just do some of the bigger cavities for now & wait on the others. I told her my dentist BIL wanted to see the xrays, just because it is so many from having no cavities to having 11 and do plan to email them to him & see what he says. I suspect this is a combination of the old dentist being pretty casual & laid back & this one being more proactive & aggressive. Hopefully, once these are resolved on all her molars, things will be good.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone for their thoughts.</p>
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<p>It’s “amalgam”.</p>
<p>Gold alloys are typically used for crowns; they may be used for fillings but not commonly.</p>
<p>Here are descriptions of various types of fillings:
[Amalgam</a> (Dental Filling Options) - American Dental Association - ADA.org](<a href=“http://www.ada.org/3094.aspx#restorations]Amalgam”>http://www.ada.org/3094.aspx#restorations)
[Dental</a> Fillings: Gold, Amalgam, Composite, Ceramic and More](<a href=“Dental Fillings: Gold, Amalgam, Composite, Ceramic and More”>Dental Fillings: Gold, Amalgam, Composite, Ceramic and More)</p>
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<p>I have some amalgam fillings in molars. No point in replacing them as the only other people who see them are the dentist and dental hygenist.</p>
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<p>What in particular? From what I have read, amalgam fillings do seem to have a small edge in durability over composite fillings.</p>
<p>Himom - You are still better than me. I have year round expensive dental cost. All my family members have wisdom tooth surgery, crown, aligment, filling,… since last summer. Insurance cap $1500 per person and only 50% of the cost is re-imbursed.</p>
<p>I am just hoping that this is not a harbinger of more dental problems for D, since we were always happy that she & S & we have had generally excellent dental health. The dentist thinks this is just one of those things that happen.</p>
<p>Out of pocket, we only have to pay about 1/3 of the approximately $1500 for her wisdom teeth extraction & 2/3 of these $1500 cavity fillings, plus extra cleaning visit(s). That’s just for D–no idea what we’ll end up paying for me or S.</p>
<p>Dentist BIL has looked at the xrays & tooth photos. He says there are the six very obvious cavities that need filling as well as the five that she plans to fill mostly as a preventative before they get bigger. He says her judgment makes sense. It’s D’s molars & pre-molars. Her teeth have deep fissures that would otherwise attract deeper decay.</p>
<p>I’ve only had 4 cavaties (due to orthodontic work and being unable to reach where it was at (full on cover of tooth type thing)). I like my current dentist very much. He’s been my grandmothers dentist for many many years and everyone knows us by name when we go in.</p>
<p>Likewise though, I agree with getting a second opinion on most things. I knew someone who was told she had to loose a tooth due to a crack or something (can’t remember), went to another and they were able to save the tooth.</p>
<p>On a related note, I had the seals as a child. One came completely off and had to be redone (ugh).</p>
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<p>Well, if you can’t trust your BIL dentist, whom can you trust? HImom, I’m glad you got a second opinion.</p>
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<p>[Dental</a> amalgam controversy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_amalgam_controversy]Dental”>Dental amalgam controversy - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>I prefer porcelain for the better performance in not transmitting temperature extremes.</p>
<p>WOW, with that many cavities missed, can you sue the previous dentist?</p>
<p>As a small family business - just DH and I - we have to pay for all of our own insurance premiums and of course the deductible and other uncovered charges. We’ve decided to not carry dental insurance because the cost was high compared to the potential savings. </p>
<p>For a short period of time we carried the Costco dental plan but found the enrolled dentists to be sub-par in our area. There is another option which we’re trying out right now and it seems to make sense in our situation.</p>
<p>[Affordable</a> Dental Plans | Dental Insurance Alternative | Affordable Dental Care](<a href=“http://www.newdentalchoice.com/]Affordable”>http://www.newdentalchoice.com/)</p>
<p>This is not an insurance plan but rather a membership type system where the enrolled dentists agree to stipulated charges for each CPT/procedure code. Anyone can join and you can check to see if your current dentist is in this network via the website.</p>
<p>The nice thing is you know exactly what the procedure will cost you before you ever sit in the chair. Having said this, if it became clear that expensive oral surgery was in a family members future, I’d rejoin the Costco plan ($200.00/year for a family of 4) and then muck through the ugly process of getting the needed authorization from one of those sub-par dentists (the actual in network oral surgeon is fantastic). They don’t like that game, I don’t like that game…but if the cost differential is $1800 on wisdom teeth extractions…then the game is on.</p>
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<p>For what? There was no harm done to the patient.</p>
<p>What do you mean by no harm done? Lots of cavities which cost a lot of money now and further down the line. Most USA kids have no cavities at this age.</p>
<p>No interest in suing anyone, but am moving our business to new dentist. Have had two independent dentists confirm the conclusions of new dentist that D should have all 11 fillings. It is strongly hoped by all of us (including new dentist), that D will NOT have further fillings, since these are her molars & pre-molars. </p>
<p>Lawsuits are generally not a good way to get things resolved and not my preference except in SEVERE injury or death. Many healthcare professionals are NOT interested in treating patients who have had malpractice lawsuits and one can hardly blame them. It is not pleasant to get stuck having to testify, especially if you may have to testify against a current or former colleague.</p>
<p>We’re just hoping that once she attends to these cavities, her dental health will be excellent for a very long time (with regular cleanings & continued good oral hygeine).</p>
<p>The new dentist sounds like a good doc. It takes docs a few years from finishing training to become efficient and to develop mature judgement. The “sweet spot” for practicing docs spans years 5 to 15 after finishing training.</p>
<p>Re: [Dental</a> amalgam controversy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_amalgam_controversy]Dental”>Dental amalgam controversy - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>It is worth noting that this article does say that Maths Berlin, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Medicine and Chair of the 1991 World Health Organization Task Group on Environmental Health Criteria for Inorganic Mercury, who says that amalgam is “unsuitable” now given the available alternatives, also recommends that “Removal of existing amalgam fillings should not be undertaken unless there are medical reasons for doing so. The reason is that the risk of complications from the removal may exceed the risk of side-effects from the amalgam. The risk of removal is due mainly to the fact that dental substance is drilled away, which may itself result in problems with existing teeth.”</p>
<p>Also, if an existing functional amalgam filling is removed the process of drilling it out may expose you to far more mercury than leaving the filling there.</p>
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<p>Given that dental bills tend to be relatively small ($100 cleaning/checkup, $150 filling a cavity, etc.), it is not generally economical to run them through insurance billing. The only reason dental insurance exists at all is that it is often cheaper for employers to offer it as a benefit (due to tax treatment) than to pay employees more (which would get taxed) to cover their dental care costs.</p>
<p>Our max benefit is $1,000 and it costs about $350/year to us (not including the tax benefit). We have the preventive but should have picked the higher plan which costs a little more and provides double the benefit.</p>
<p>If we didn’t have dental insurance, we’d just pay for services out of pocket because things aren’t all that expensive.</p>
<p>S, who just graduated from college, just had a couple of dental visits before leaving the country for a year. Turned into 5 fillings for a cost of $1000+, including cleaning and xrays. (I wasn’t there, so I’m not sure of the exact figure.) He hadn’t been to the dentist for about 3 years. I have an appointment in a week. I have a broken and badly-repaired veneer, a broken back molar, and some intermittent pain back there. I shudder to think of the cost. We don’t have dental insurance–except for H–but we do have a health savings account that can be used for dental.</p>