"The pen is mightier than the sword, and considerably easier to write with." - Marty Feldman

Yesterday I had two root canal restorations done. For those of you that have never had the pleasure, let me give you a brief rundown of what that entails: During a root canal (which I had in November), the endodontist drills down through a tooth and completely removes any root that is left in the tooth. Then the endodontist fills it with a temporary filling. In my case, they did this because I had an infection in the roots of two teeth that were side by side. During a root canal retsoration, the dentist puts a post where the root used to be and fills it up just like a cavity. When I had the root canal I was going to a random dentist I choose because he accepted our insurance. He had BEAUTIFUL office with fountains and imported furniture. Seriously, the waiting room was very nice. However, to be honest, I never felt entirely comfortable with him. So, when my husband's job switched insurance January 1st, I called up my former dentist, who I had been seeing since a kid.

Now, I absolutely hate going to the dentist. Not necessarily through any fault on the part of the dental professionals, just because I cannot stand the thought of the scraping, etc. But the price I was about to pay (as quoted by the dentist with the beautiful office) made me want to put off that root canal restoration as long as possible. He quoted me $800 per tooth, 80% of which would be paid by my insurance. That still left me to pay $320.00 for something I did not want to have done anyway. But I knew it had to be done so I went on Valentine's Day (Happy Valentine's Day to me) to my former dentist. Do you know how much they charged me and my insurance? $144.00 per tooth, meaning my total was only $52.00! What the heck??

So, I have a question for everyone out there. Did you know that you had to shop dentists for a good deal? I knew there would be differences in pricing, but $1300.00? Is that ridiculous, or what?