Dental Insurance and Fees
Insurance is a contribution to your dental fees. Its purpose is to reduce the dental fees, but not necessarily cover the entire cost of high quality dental care. As I said in a prior post, do not let it guide you in choosing the treatment that is best for your health. There are sometimes costs for treatment that insurance will not cover regardless of what our office requests. Insurance providers generally follow the suggested fee guide put out by the College of Dental Surgeons. While the Guide is updated each year, some insurance companies maintain the older fees in order to keep their premiums down. “This Suggested Fee Guide is published to serve as a guide. No general practitioner or specialist is required to endorse or to charge the fees itemized in this Guide.” -College of Dental Surgeons of Saskatchewan
Our office is in line with some of the guide fees, but because of the reasons below, we do have a slight fee increase on most surgical and restorative work.
As a health practitioner, dentists must acquire continuing education points throughout the year. Dr. Dodds has chosen to regularly attend courses through the Kois Institute in Seattle, the Eastman Dental Institute in London, England, and the Faculty of Dentistry in Toronto; prominent centres that focus on improving skills and knowledge above and beyond the ordinary. In addition to that, he often attends courses throughout North America. Our office strongly believes in in training for both our doctors and staff, so that our entire office is confident and up to date in all things dental.
Our office has invested heavily in current technology in order to:
– lessen the dose of radiation and increase the accuracy of records through digital x-rays
– have accurate and detailed patient records by having all electronic records
– provide more dental services by investing in laser technology
– provide clear visuals of teeth so patients can be educated about the health of their mouth by using intraoral digital cameras
We also choose to use quality dental supplies from reputable suppliers. For a root canal, for example, there are hand files which are cheaper or titanium files which are placed on a drill and clean the canal more effectively and thoroughly. We choose to use the products that we would want used on ourselves and our family in order to create the most positive dental experience possible.
Insurance plans are meant to help cover the costs of treatment. While we always keep in mind the financial burden of dental care, we present a treatment plan based on what is best for the patient, not for the insurance company. They are not qualified to assess, diagnose or create a treatment plan.
And if you want to feel better about dental fees in Saskatchewan, see this investigative article from CBC that called 11 offices in Alberta and discovered a wide discrepancy in fees (note that 4 units of scaling at our office is $150 as of January 2016, and the lowest they found in Alberta was $250!).
