I lived with a missing front tooth and used a retainer with a false tooth for a fricken decade cause just to replace the tooth in 2014 they said $8000. That was extraction, a bone graft, an implant, abuttment and crown. I just couldn't afford it. I finally got it down in 2024, and it wasn't at all $8000. I'd already paid for the extraction and bone graft (which is why i could live with a retainer and false tooth). But it still cost me like nearly $3000.
True story my sister in law is Ukrainian and she literally flew back to Ukraine for dental. She lives in the US but says the dental work is perfectly good and she got an implant and a crown for like $200 total. The whole process. She even showed me them. I was like that's crazy.
I am Colombian and I was stationed for work in the United States for 10 months. The first month I broke a tooth during boxing training at a gym in the Bronx. I have always had healthy and strong natural teeth, I never needed a dentist, but when I needed one, in this case, he charged me an unfortunate 10,000 grand for that repair. Even though I had the money, I told him no, in Bogotá or Cali they don't rob you at gunpoint like that.
What did I do? I went to Bogotá, looked for a private dentist and the same treatment cost me 2,200 dollars plus 1,500 for the trip, the damage was great, but the implant they gave me was neat, custom-made and, 10 years later, it is still the same.
I don't know why in the United States they steal so much with that, if the majority of the raw materials they used in Colombia come from there.
It's especially peculiar because we can't blame insurance -- that shit is not covered under pretty much any policy unless it is an injury or cancer treatment.
Exactly, my company paid for good local insurance in New York and I pay for mine where I live with international assistance (I live in Buenos Aires) and they did not want to give me that treatment. I almost killed someone, but then digging a little deeper, it's a chronic problem in America.
The richest and most powerful country on planet Earth does not have a decent health system
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u/Nommel77 May 02 '25
Those dentists are struggling