I was talking to a guy at the Verizon store last night and we got to talking about what I do. He asked if I was in network with his PPO but I told him that we weren’t. That basically means we have to drop our fees to half. But most dentists don’t give the same quality for half the price. Multiple patients have come in over the years from cheaper places where they were told that they needed fifteen fillings for fifteen cavities and that they also needed deep cleanings. What I told him was that looking for the cheapest price in dentistry isn’t always the best option. Doing fifteen fillings at a low cost when you don’t really need them ends up being a lot more expensive. I couldn’t find one cavity, the gums were healthy. That patient would have paid over $1000 over their insurance because of the dishonesty of that dentist. They crank up their fees and everything to make up for being in network with the insurance companies. Going to a dentist that actually shows you the xrays and pictures of your teeth and shows you the conditions that we are looking for is the experience you will get at our office. New patients come in for the comprehensive exam, where we go over a powerpoint that goes over the different things we are looking for; oral cancer, gum disease, broken fillings, broken teeth, fractures, decay as well as how we check for these things. We are looking for ways to prevent future problems. If you go to a very conservative dentist that doesn’t fix anything unless it’s 100% broken, you’ll end up missing some things and losing a lot of teeth that you could have prevented. What’s expensive is doing treatment that doesn’t need to be done.