How does anyone afford dental work?

Do you have a dental school in/near your city? They will often have student clinics (supervised by profs) where you can get work done *much* less expensively than in a regular practice. I did this and had a good experience at the University of Toronto when I badly needed work, and purlguy's coverage wasn't going to be kicking in for a few months.

I'm not sure where you are but my family in San Diego regularly gets their dental work done across the border in Mexico for a fraction of the price. In fact, I got all my dental work done there when I was a kid. There was a http://ask.metafilter.com/176354/Tijuana-dental-clincs#2537483 on this.

As odd as it sounds (and after you've exhausted all options of getting this done in the states without selling off an arm or a leg or both), you should consider going to a country like India. A return ticket from the states to Mumbai ~$1500 Stay - if you decide to stay in decent hotels should come to $30-$50 per day The procedure should be marginal compared to the costs here. It cost me ~350$ or so per tooth extraction here in the states - cost of 4-5 wisdom teeth + general anesthesia -> $2500$ I had a root canal done in India and it cost me about $100 - including the ceramic (white color) crown. Health care costs in the states can kill a person before he dies of the disease.

Does your work have the option of a FSA? If you do it probably covers dental procedures. The total amount of your contribution gets deposited in your acct by your employer at the beginning of you plan year while it get taken out of each check (pre-tax) over the course of the year. It may be too late for this year but might be worth looking into.

Seconding dental school clinics. I had a bunch of stuff done years ago at Tufts in Boston. I had crappy dental insurance but it ended up covering almost everything they did because they charged so much less. The quality of the work was excellent.

Can you plan the procedures over 2 or more visits in December 2012/January 2013 so your insurance covers $4000 total, since it'll be over two calendar years? Splitting over policy years is a good idea, but make sure to confirm with your dental insurance carrier whether its policy years are calendar years (starting on January 1) or fiscal years (some start on July 1, some on October 1, etc.)

There are "Dental Spa"-type places all over Southeast Asia that are reliable and (comparatively) inexpensive. Even with the cost of airfare, it'd be way under 15k and you'd get a vacation out of it. I'm not sure what the un-insured cost is, but with my Korean dental insurance it cost me just under five dollars a tooth to have my wisdom teeth yanked. All told it would have been like 18 bucks.

Clearly I am not a dentist and do not know your oral health. But I have the exact same situation with two baby teeth with no permanent teeth albeit in my upper jaw. The three different dentists I had over the last ten years have mentioned the fact that these teeth won't last for ever and have suggested I look into implants in the long run. But nobody has suggested this was a matter of urgency or that it would be easier to do by a certain age. And yes, I did make it clear to these dentists that I could not afford to pursue that option at the moment. I was blissfully unaware of the fact that I had this issues until one of my baby teeth chipped when I bit into a nut. I was about 25 at the time. My dentist explained to me that this was not uncommon. He filled the tooth but explained the filling may not last many years. Eventually I would have to consider a more permanent fix. Indeed the filling came out after 2-3 years but there was enough tooth left to hold another filling. That's still going strong. And both baby teeth are still firmly set in my jaw. I am now 34. My current dentist has increased the interval for calling me back for check-ups because there is never anything wrong with my teeth.... So try to get some perspective on this. Nothing horrible will happen today or tomorrow. You should have plenty of time to consider all your options and work out a plan you can actually afford.

Here's another vote for going to a less expensive country. As vacapinta pointed out, Mexico is a good option, and there are dentists who speak English and are used to working with people from the north, including ones with anxiety. Check Mexico expat forums for recommendations. I live in Mexico and wouldn't hesitate to go to a recommended dentist here. Also, if an implant is expensive and tricky, you might consider just getting a bridge. I had lots of dental work done in Thailand, including a Maryland bridge in my bottom front teeth. I'm not supposed to bite and twist hard on things like a chewy baguette, but I haven't had any issues with it or with the adjacent teeth, and it's been two years so far. Instead of an implant where an upper molar was pulled, I got a ceramic bridge. Yes, it requires putting a crown on the adjacent teeth, but that seemed less risky and invasive than the sinus lift and bone graft that my implant apparently would require.