As it happens, I was at the dentist today. I have no dental insurance, but the office’s latest deal is “VIP Membership” for $50 a year, which greatly discounts services. They used to have an annual fee that included two cleanings and annual X-rays and fluoride and discounts on other stuff, but this is their new thing.
Today’s bill:
The Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances based calc at Net Worth Percentile Calculator – United States (and Average) lists the following percentiles (adjusting for inflation). $1M seems to be relatively common among retired persons, but rare among younger persons. Across all ages, the bulk of NW appears to be outside of home equity.
$1M+ NW Percentile
Age 25-29 – 98th percentile with home equity, 98th percentile without home equity
Age 30-34 – 97th percentile with home equity, 96th percentile without home equity
…
Age 60-64 – 70th percentile with home equity, 77th percentile without home equity
Age 65-69 – 71st percentile with home equity, 78th percentile without home equity
Age 70-74 – 68th percentile with home equity, 78th percentile without home equity
Overall – 81st percentile with home equity, 87th percentile without home equity
I was at the dentist this week and was reminded of this thread. I asked them what the cost would be - she quoted 700$ annually. Covers two cleanings (including two check-ups) + one round of x-rays.
and a $400 gift card to Flemings??
Please explain what this means.
Around here, the cost of two cleanings AND X-rays would be very similar…$600 range.
That you all live in the Beverly Hills of Dentistry 
Honestly, I’ll have to check on x ray costs but two cleanings are under $200 here…the insured rate like $150 or $160. I get 3 cleanings a year. The third I pay for - just checked - last year $76.
It’s just mind blowing the figures you all are quoting - that’s all.
So when @arisamp gave her quote, I thought it was being robbed!!! Well it would be if where I live.
A lot of dentists actually advertise intro offers - it’s like a cleaning, exam and Xrays - for like $99. But I think that’s new customer introduction - like let’s get em in the door for the first time. People trying to build a business.
My guy is not that - as he’s closed Fridays…lives a good life…takes his team to Hawaii and things like that. I’m sure he does a lot of non - cleaning high revenue stuff.
Just looked up my EOB from Monday. I got xrays and a cleaning. $161. Without the Xrays, the cost was $111. $272 for the year - if I manage to make it twice… Fluoride treatments are only covered through age 18. I’m just a tad over that.
I expect the bigger influence on cost is the services applied and insurance negotiated rates. It’s common for lower cost dental cleanings to be insurance negotiated rates that may be negotiated to as low as half of sticker price. These steep discounts often require that you choose a specific in-network dentist. The dentist agrees to the lower rates to get the extra customers. The lower charge for cleaning also require that the dentist perform a specific sequence of procedures at a specific time interval. If the dentist uses resin, that may not be covered. If the dentist has a basic x-ray more often than once a year (or in some cases longer), that may not be covered. If the dentist does a more in depth cleaning than standard, portions may not be covered.
As I noted elsewhere in the thread, costs paid to dentist for a cleaning range from well under $100 to well over $1000 in my area. The former is an insurance negotiated rate for an in-network provider who does not deviate from the insurance specified procedure. The latter is for a dentist who adds many non-approved steps that have 0% insurance coverage with sticker price unnegotiated rates, such as lasers. My experience is that many dentists have a small deviation or 2 from the insurance specified procedure. And the cost of that non-covered deviation may add $0 to $300 to the insurance negotiated rate. I suspect being able to charge extra at unnegotiated rates influences why many dentists include these extras.
I was in my files and came across what our Delta Denta via employer COBRA cost per month for both of us, 2021/2022 18-month period,
$ 70/month covering us both. We were happy to have the extended coverage.
Our dentist’s plan for cleaning/routine X rays/oral exam twice a year (and a few extra freebies like an emergency appointment) per person initially was $325 and now it is $375 per person. We are happy with this. DH’s recent crown I had already discussed but with discount was $ 1,265. They do great work, and we are happy to have this dentist and their offering of in-house plan for keeping our teeth in great shape. As others have said, have your teeth in great shape before retirement/getting off an employer’s dental plan. I believe our dentist has kept up with how to retain patients and manage when patients go into non-dental insurance periods. Win-win for dentist and for us.
It is interesting that at the time that DH desired to retire prior to both of us being 65, he gave no consideration to the medical insurance costs. Fortunately, I worked enough hours to be able to obtain pretty much the same health care insurance coverage with paying a reasonable employee portion of the cost for the next 11 months until we both were 65.
We have both been retired for almost 4 years, but when we left our financial advisor’s office last week, DH said “I didn’t know I get this much money per month with Social Security”. I discuss financials with him regularly (and he can look up the SS deposits on our bank statements), but somehow the numbers just went by for him. Recently I had summarized for our FA what we receive monthly, with a breakdown of each of our social security amounts, a small annuity amount - due to buy-out from a prior employer, and the five annuities we have purchased through FA.
@tsbna44 - we have dental insurance and I don’t think I’ve ever looked to see how much a cleaning should cost. She told me this amount and I didn’t think it was too high. Guess now I know better!
May not be - I mean, to me it is but I’m South of Nashville - in a wealthy suburb.
Gas is under $3, etc. Other places $4.50.
So it happens (differing costs in different places).
I had 3 crowns that broke and/or needed replacement for a variety of reasons this year. Crowns are expensive!. Delta insurance can be very valuable. In our case , we quickly his my $2500 max, even with the insurance negotiated rates. I also have visits to an endodontist. Good dental care is not cheap!
It’s just so weird that our mouth-bones are not counted as part of HEALTHcare. I think it’s based on how dentists self-identified in like the 1700s with a pliers vs. surgeons/“doctors”. I’m going to the dentist next week and will pay a lot of attention to see how our costs compare (HCOL area in MA).
Is there “Medicare” dental insurance (without having to choose Medicare Advantage)? I think the teachers’ retirement plans might offer a self-funded plan and I will have to look into that.
Medicare, as in paid by the feds, No. However, many supplement insurers do offer dental insurance to seniors for an additional fee.
Speaking of dental cleanings, it maybe a good idea NOT to skip them:
https://www.nia.nih.gov/news/large-study-links-gum-disease-dementia
One thing to think about with your mouth is that an infection due to a tooth issue can be deadly. My brother told me about a physician son of friends whose wife died from a tooth infection – they were on an overseas medical mission, and I suspect she did not discuss her mouth problem until it became a life-threatening infection that either IV drugs were not available in time or it went systemic fast. My dad’s sister in Switzerland died of a tooth infection in the 1960’s - she was a mother of 3 children.
When in college, my daughter had a deep strep infection that caused her throat to swell (ENT said it was unusual for someone under age 45 to have this, and actually a co-worker had this happen a month before it happened to my daughter); she got medical orders from a urgent care clinic so she walked into ER with MD orders for a steroid shot and a CT scan of her head and neck. It was ‘caught early’ - hospitalization with IV antibiotics for 3 1/2 days and surgical lance/drain of pus pocket (incision near tonsils), 30 ccs. In 24 - 48 hours untreated, it would have gone to her brain, her chest or both and been life threatening.
To me, it is not ‘worth it’ to risk one’s health by not following good guidelines with medical and dental care.
The infection stories remind me of when years ago I walked into an ENT thinking I had a sinus infection and instead it was an infection in the root of an upper tooth.
I spoke yesterday with a Medicare insurance advisor who is contracted by one of my medical providers. She was very helpful (despite having already done this process last year for my husband) and had good information for when I switch to Medicare later this year.
My husband and I currently have Delta Dental through our state’s marketplace (although it is not subsidized). (Husband already on Medicare, me on marketplace health insurance). She suggested that when I leave my marketplace medical insurance, we call Delta Dental and ask for a deal for a husband/wife plan for next year. This would get us completely off the marketplace and they would most likely give us a better rate.
I agree with following health and medical guidelines. I do, but I have always had the privilege of being covered by good health and dental insurance.
I will just say that I wish everyone had that same privilege.
Here’s my PSA about dentistry: I had a horrifying experience about 6-7 years ago where I called my dentist on a Thursday morning as I was having a little discomfort that I thought was due to jaw clenching at night (too much stress), and I noticed a teeny white dot on my gum line—I wondered if I could swing by later in the day as I was wary of going into the weekend if it was anything to be concerned about…?
I popped in and they did an X-ray, which revealed a bone infection. I wasn’t feeling the actual pain and didn’t have “early warning signs” because it was where I had had a root canal 15 years prior.
They sent me to an endodontist immediately for a cone x-ray which led me to undergoing an emergency tooth extraction. (It was incredibly traumatic, awful, and took three hours—for many terrible reasons that don’t need to be explicated here!)
The infection was even larger than visualized on the cone x-ray, going further into my jaw, and I was on a LOT of extremely strong antibiotics immediately thereafter and it took months to heal.
It was absolutely something that would have killed me, and when I was talking about it a few months later with my friend’s husband (who is also a dentist), he said that an infection in/around a root canal is one of the most dangerous as the patient can’t feel it until it’s gone quite a bit farther.
Dental/gum health is so important! In addition to the risks others have outlined here, cardiovascular “events” are also substantially higher in people with gum disease.
I have always liked the Bay Area and when ShawSon was living there, I tried to persuade ShawWife to move to Marin County. ShawSon tried to do that when ShawD also moved there. So, I thought there was a chance we would all end up in the Bay Area. But ShawWife decided that she really wanted to stay where we are and then we bought a wonderful new house.
In part because we are rooted here, ShawD decided to move back to be near us for when she has kids and when we are older. ShawSon has talked about wanting to raise kids in our town but who knows. So, with luck there will be grandkids and we will be near them.
