£180 for a filling with Insurance Covering it?

A_rabbit_with_a_cause

I recently had a filling (root Canal and crown) done under Denplan, and it cost me £180 in "laboratory fees":eek: My friend paid the same for a filling without insurance. Any ideas?

stroppiemare

i can't believe it cost £180.00 for a filling,was it gold at my dentist you get a filling and polish and scrape for £42.50.

A_rabbit_with_a_cause

The Main thing though was it was insured! Surely Insurance should pay for that if you're paying them £20/month!

tom188

Check what your insurance documents to see what it covers.

halloweenqueen_2

I don't think I'd bother with the insurance any more, is there any hope of an nhs dentist near you?

laurajayne

I'm sure toothsmith will be along shortly...he normally is

I think you need to clarify exactly what you had done, as first you state a filling...at £180 is very expensive lol - plus no lab work is required for a normal filling.

However, you then state "(root canal and crown)" which is very different from a plain filling. I have been both a dental technician and a dental nurse, so worked both 'sides' at t'were...and depending on what material your crown was made of, this would probably be about right. To put this in prespective, privately (cos, unbelievably, I am petrified of the dentist, and will only visit one!) I paid £180 for a root canal treatment (upper right 6, so multirooted) and then paid £450/500 (was a year ago now) for a crown, however that was a Porcelain crown. Top of the range for some reason lol.

Best advice...chat to your dentist to clarify

Jake'sGran

A_rabbit_with_a_cause wrote:

I recently had a filling (root Canal and crown) done under Denplan, and it cost me £180 in "laboratory fees":eek: My friend paid the same for a filling without insurance. Any ideas?

You should have received a leaflet showing the set fees for NHS dentistry so I don't think insurance is necessary and unless there was an excess on your policy you should not have had to pay anything. I would definitely put up a fight with this one. If you paid by credit card they will help as it is over £100.
They will refund it (I feel sure) and do the battling with the insurance company.

zenmaster

laurajayne wrote:

I'm sure toothsmith will be along shortly...he normally is

Probably not on here (though I could be wrong) but maybe one of the mods could move it to the Health board.

linlin_3

Denplan don't cover lab fees - ordinary fillings don't have lab fees so you're paying because of the crown.
I've recently had to decide whether to join a private dental insurance plan and looked at the Boots Dental Plan which offers two levels of cover costing £13.50 pm and £19.50 pm - the following illustrates the bogus nature of these plans:
Example 1 - One each annually: check up; hygenist; xray; extraction
Total cost privately with no insurance: £121.50
Total cost after paying level 1 insurance/claiming reimbursements: £229.73
Total cost after paying level 2 insurance/claiming reimbursements: £278.02

Example 2: - Annually: one checkup; two hygenist.
Total cost privately with no insurance: £123
Total cost after paying level 1 insurance/claiming reimbursements: £237.47
Total cost after paying level 2 insurance/claiming reimbursements: £292

Example 3: Same as example 2 but add one bridge.
Total cost privately with no insurance: £503
Total cost after paying level 1 insurance/claiming reimbursements: £440.67
Total cost after paying level 2 insurance/claiming reimbursements: £464

Conclusion: Unless you need a lot of work (and you can't get cover for pre-existing conditions), you're better off without insurance and saving a monthly amount for expensive treatment.

mintymoneysaver

Yes your £180 will be having to pay for the lab fees, this wasn't just a crown.
I do have insurance because my theory was that having two check ups and two hygienist appointments a year made up the cost of 6 months fees anyway, I know the other 6 months fees COULD be a waste of money but with my teeth I don't want to risk it...

Toothsmith

For some reason, this thread didn't show up on my 'dentist' searches. It only came up when I searched for 'toothsmith' which I don't do very often - so sorry I'm late!

You seem to have had the right answers up there though.

The £180 was a lab fee - the technicians charge for making the crown you had.

With me, a root filling on a molar tooth is £285, and a crown will be £250 on top of that depending on the type. If it's a fancy all-ceramic crown, then it could go up to £5-£600 for the crown.

So, for a non Denplan patient, what you had done would cost £535 +. For a Denplan Patient it would have been just the lab fee - which depending on the type of crown, would be £85 - £200 round here with the labs I use.


Jakes Gran's comment about the NHS charges is accurate, but doesn't really apply here as the treatment wasn't NHS, and I don't think your dentist ever tried to pretend it was?