Hi Everybody:)

So here I am back again:)))Its been fun dicovering life here in the Usa..I must say there are things i like better in Russia,and things I like here more...
Talking about dental,my visit was very" funny"...doctor said I need to change all fillings in my teeth,he was terrified of work they did in Russia and thats in Moscow and believe me or not at the best doctors:)))
So here i am now working on it bit by bit...
I have Golden west insurance and after half a year of calling i finally got some decent guy on the phone that helped!anyway,I am looking to switch or get one more dental insurance-still there is so much work to do to get to the hollywood smile point...

Anybody knows which insurance covers the most?Including cosmetics such as vaneers?

Thank you for your help!

Most dental plans will not cover cosmetics, and will only cover veneers if they're not for cosmetic reasons. There might be some plans out there, but my experience has been that dental providers are even stingier than medical providers.

yeah its so funny,every time we go to doctor they trying to rip us off by trying to cbarge more than we are supposed to pay...and every time we have to fight for dollar..thats insane...

Yes. They do this because many people just give up and pay.

Yep..Business..all about money here...

Wow. For the socialist paradise that would be California, I never would have imagined such stories of capitalism run amok. I've never had a doctor charge me unfairly. They usually charge some extra to cover insurance administration costs, but once they realize that I'm uninsured (self-employed), they go out of their way to make all kinds of reductions. My last physical cost me $25 (when I was insured, my co-pay was $20). Dentists also have been pretty reasonable for cleanings, fillings, etc.

Just surprised...

Z

I haven't seen your teeth, but honestly I would get a second opinion before spending a lot of money on dental work. Despite the fact that I went to the best clinic in st. Petersburg (where they have treated us PRESIDENTS), my gynecologist flipped out and practically started yelling at me when i said i had gone to a gyno in russia. US doctors seem to be really biased against Russia. I would see a dentist and not say your fillings were done in russia and see what they say.

I have had it very easy, Uncle who is a dentist but lives 2 hrs away, that was inconvenient so I married one now I just have to get her a license

It's going to take 4 years of dental school

There's a lot of truth to this. My step-mom does all the billing at a dental office and the way she explains it, they charge one rate for the services and then they charge another rate for the insurance company. Basically, if a procedure is $35 then it's going to cost you your co-pay ($20+) and then it'll cost the insurance company at least $35 too because it'll now be a $55 procedure with you already paying the $20. Or so at least that's what the insurance company will get the bill for. (And they wonder why insurance is so expensive!)

What that means for you is you have a lot of room to negotiate with the dentist. Call around and tell them up front what you're looking for and ask how much it'll be if you pay cash (they like cash because then there's no chasing down the insurance forms, which could get denied and don't get paid very quickly) and talk directly to the dentist when you go. Tell him/her that you want a certain thing done and you're willing to pay this or that for it. They'll work with you.

And getting all your fillings replaced sounds a little overboard. Could it be that this guy sees a free $$$$$? Definitely get a second opinion. (And a 3rd, 4th, etc.)

Another thing you may want to check out is Public Health or the Free Clinic in your area. They usually have dental care available at reduced rates as well.

And if worse comes to worst, dental insurance is relatively cheap, so just find some cheap policy to help you cover the costs.

I do not think you will find dental insurance that will cover more than 50% of medically necessary procedures. I have dental insurance through my employer and that is the best I can get and it is limited to $1000 per year and $50 deductable. My wife has had a crown put on one of her few remaining natural teeth, and total cost was $830 and I had to pay $420 with insurance picking up the rest. My wife has had EXTENSIVE work done on her teeth in Russia (Saratov). I do get the impression from our dentist that this work is substandard and will be causing problems in the future. She just had a massive filling crack off one of her teeth and had to have a repair that will probably need a crown in the near future. The size of the filling indicates that a crown was probably waht was needed in the first place.

However, I would highly recommend that you get two or three opinions. My American daughter recently moved to another city and she had to get a new dentist. She has always had perfect teeth. Her first visit was good...no problems...cleaning only. six months later at the routine cleaning, the dentist recommended about $1400 worth of work on "pre-cavity" sites. He had some new fangled machine that could detect minute defects. she went to another dentist and the same thing happened. the first visit...no problems...6 months later over $1000 worth of work. I asked my dentist if she could recommend a dentist in my daughters city and explained what was going on. (the cities are in the same state, 90 miles apart) She recommended one and when my daughter has not bee advised that she needed any additional work. So, there are some money hungry dentists out there, more that I would have guessed.

Good luck!

Devereux

Dental insurance in the U.S. is a joke. My policy (through work) has a $1000 per year limit, as others have mentioned. If you need anything major done, you're sure to exceed that in half a minute less than no time. And I'm probably going to have to have some major work done in the next few years.

Now, back on point (about adjusting to the USA), I shall be very interested to see what the dentist says about my wife's (fiancee, legally) teeth when she comes here. She is from Hanoi, Vietnam, and has never been to a dentist in her life, even though her aunt is a dentist. They don't really do preventative dentistry over there, but the people of northern Vietnam have remarkably fine teeth. You don't see people with bad/missing teeth in Hanoi. My wife eats chicken bones (I know, I know, it's a cultural difference, OK). I'm just very curious to see what the dentist has to say about my wife's teeth when she comes here.

On edit: Whoops! Sorry, I think I'm in the wrong forum! I thought I was someplace else! Sorry!

Its ok:)I wish You luck guys1Hope her teeth going to be just fine:)

I find it hard to believe there is not a decent dentist doing good work "back-home".

Why not wait until you go for a visit and get at least some of the work done with him at a fraction of the price?

i've heard that going to the dentist in russia is far scarier. i'd rather go in america and pay more.

"Going to the dentist" was always a scam for the Russian girls while I was in Korea. They'd fake a toothache for several days (even using it as an excuse to miss dates with guys) and then ask the guy to "help them pay" for some supposed dental work they were going to get. Only the guy couldn't go because they didn't want their manager to find out they were dating some American guy. Bad for business.

Her and her friends would laugh all the way to the candy shop on that one!

I've seen a lot of the crap work that was done over there, and I've been quite busy repairing it for my wife, and for some of our other Russian/Ukrainian friends. On one of my trips I visited my wife's dentist to see how things were done in that office. To my surprise I noted there was no X-ray machine in the office. When I asked, they told me they couldn't afford it yet. Explains why my wife's root canals were all filled short.

I took my wife to the "clinic" in town to have a full mouth set of X-rays made so I could see what problems she might have. Even though I was paying they resisted asking why I would want X-rays of teeth without visible decay? They just didn't seem to get it.

I also visited a place called "The American Dental Clinic" in Rostov-on-Don as I was very curious about the name. Had a very nice visit with the dentist/owner who spoke fairly good English. He was a dentist from Moscow and came down a few days a week to do implant cases and other advanced work. He used the name to mean American style dental work. A very nice and modern office. He visits the US every year for courses and conventions and is a member of the American Dental Association. He also charges the same prices as upper end offices in the US! We talked for a while and he offered me a job on the spot telling me I would make as much there as I was in the US (I still don't believe him).

He seemed to be a fine dentist, but he told me even in Moscow he knew of less than a dozen dentists that he thought were any good.

Well, here's the OP's answer, right there above... fly down to Florida and pay neonred a visit!

Acutally only 2 we can get her into a advanced standing program at a couple of different schools.

Probably U of M. Schools do vary on their programs for foreign trained dentists with 3 and 4 year programs being the norm. Tell her to start studying for the part I national boards now as it is required for admission to most of these programs. Admission is very competitive. I have a Russian trained dentist working for me now as a hygienist. They are trying to get into one of these programs and so far got turned down 3 times.

And the tuition expenses are killer. I see UM is over $60,000/year plus fees, and I have been told NYU gets $87,000.
My daughter starts dental school in 2 months at my old school, Louisville, and even that will be over $45,000/year tuition plus fees.