I went to the dentist today...

[Shananigans]

They cleaned my teeth and then told me I was going to need to have several massive cavities crowned in the next few years. This sucks ass, as I know crowns are pretty expensive. Does anyone have any experience with them? How spendy ARE they? Do they hurt?

:(

[blueknight]

1. hi shenans,

you come to the right place for advice. i have had five crowns in the last three years. no they dont hurt, the only way they hurt is in the pocketbook. the cheapest one i had was the first one a few years ago, it was $600.00. the rest were $700.00 that is he going rate around cincinnati. i have spent about $5000.00 on my teeth in the last five or six years. it sucks!

[stellanoir]

2. Consider looking into whether or not you have

a Dental school in your vicinity. Their clinics are always looking for victims. Kidding.

No seriously, they are generally well supervised and as a result take 3 times the amount of time spent for procedures but their rates are generally a mere 30% of what a professional would charge. I've had a lot of work done but until I found my really wonderfully fair, generous, and funny Italian dentist went to these kinds of clinics a lot.

Good Luck !

[Shananigans]

3. Good idea about the school...

I never thought about that. One positive poit is that my dentist has set up a consult with me to discuss how we could possibly stagger this work over a few years. I think after this appointment I will feel a little more at ease.

Thanks!

[AlCzervik]

4. I have 2 crowns and one of them i didn't think they could do

because the tooth was so bad, i had a root canal first and then anitbiotics nd much to my surprise it worked. I had a massive fear of the dentist, i had to have a whole restoration done and the worst pain was just the needle with the novicane, that was the only painful part.

[sparky_in_ma]

5. Cost, yes. Hurt, no

I've had 7x( I fell asleep during 4 of them.

[amazona]

6. get a second opinion

Crowns is why dentists drive Mercedes and their customers declare bankruptcy.

In fact get a third opinion.

In Mexico.

And, yes, I am serious. I get my dental work done in Mexico.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[Shananigans]

7. LOL...it probably wasn't meant too, but that post cracked me up.

If I were a little closer to Mexico I might consider it! Unfortunately I'm only about 4.5 hours from Canada!

The only thing with getting a second opinion is that it costs money. I am fairly certain that I *do* need them, as my last dentist told me that I would need to start thinking about replacing the fillings with crowns soon. In the four teeth that she is recommending crowns I have 75% of them filling and only 25% original tooth. I think I must have eaten a lot of sweets and soda when I was younger. :)

[FuzzySlippers]

8. I've had two done in the last three years.

They were around $550 each. And I find crown fittings to be excruciating, but I'm a big baby. I also had a touch of TMJS when I had them done, so that exacerbated the discomfort.

[soothsayer]

9. My crowns cost $800 apiece. I got two gold Ihad t o beg for them!)

gold is sturdier, and I just thought it would be so cool to have gold in my mouth (it is! so smooth) but on the one you could see, he made me get porcelain, which turned out to be fine.

I found that, on the second porcelain, he never quite got it trimmed down right, so after a few attempts at adjusting it, I just got very fine waterproof sandpaper and worked on it until it was perfect.