Dental costs are high, particularly for those who don’t carry dental insurance. Yet 50% of Americans have made no provision for dental insurance and if toothache strikes may not even have a regular dentist. If a personal budget does not allow for a basic cavity to be filled at an average cost of between $75 and $160 then the problem could escalate, and the costs rise as root canal treatment may be needed, starting at around $500. It leads people to question just why dental costs are so high. The general image of dentistry is that of a well paying profession with dentists living the lifestyle of the rich. Indeed dentistry is a lucrative profession, and those considering it as a career should easily be able to handle the repayments on the huge loans they may well face taking on to put them selves through dental school. The majority of dentists complete a full college education even before embarking on the four years of medical school, thus newly graduated dentists have a debt burden of eight years of schooling which could on average equates to approximately $150,000 to $200,000.

In addition to repaying education loans dentists will have high practice costs to pay, with mortgage or rental premises costs, pay roll expenses and equipment costs. High overheads include insurance liability and expensive dental supplies, and administration costs. Supplies which are needed for individual procedures such as crowns and bridges are high. There is also the consideration that the best dentist in the world will be a highly skilled tooth artisan but may be a dreadful business man.

It’s not surprising that so many dentists look to make a more than comfortable living after so many years of investment and study. Some can lead a glamorous lifestyle outside practice hours but their days are spent poking around in other peoples mouths, which certainly wouldn’t appeal to everyone, despite the income it generates.

The American Dental Association will provide a list of approved dentists to anyone needing dental treatment and there are some practices which charge lower fees for low income patients. Actually finding a dentist willing to take on new patients is another matter though. There are also schemes which dentists participate in by offering free dental treatment on set days. Approved dental schools, where the costs of dental work will be much lower for those who are prepared to allow supervised dental students to treat them, are available.

The high costs in general of dental treatment, plus the cap which insurance companies implement on the amount they are prepared to pay towards dental work, leaves the growth in dental tourism inevitable. People are increasingly seeking treatment at a fraction of the cost abroad as the reputation of highly skilled dentists and state of the art technologies are reported. It will be interesting to see if this trend has any visible influence on the costs of US dentistry in the coming decade, other than to see them increase still further.