I had a root canal today. The total bill was $715.00 . Would that consititute an emergency for you? Would you have to dig into your emergency funds to pay for a root canal? Do you have dental insurance? How much does your dental insurance cover for a root canal? Certianly you have that memorized don’t you?
Well anyway, I had my first root canal around 10 years ago and the secret back then was root canals don’t generally hurt if done correctly. It’s a long procedure (approx. 2 hours). But even 10 years ago it seemed to be a non-event other than the fact you had to sit there so long.
Today, I went to an excellent dentist who specializes in Endodontics referred by my regular dentist. After filling out the necessary paperwork, slapping down the minimum $214.00, getting in the chair, and taking two doses of local anesthetics, we were well into an hour of it all.
Then the fun started. The dentist and the dental assistant had worked together so long it was rather wonderfu to watch in a crazy kind of way. They barely spoke to each other and when they did, it seemed to be in whispered code. They moved swiftly through the whole process adjusting the necessary instruments routinely to finalize the job.
Fifty minutes later and with my face half numb, it was all over. Total time was one hour and fifty minutes. I was impressed at how they worked and the resulting pain threshold was very little or non-existent. I went in at 7:00am and was home by 9:15am. Nice.
The rest of the day went well as far as pain management went. As the numbness wore off I took a few Ibuprofen as instructed and the world was good again. Of course I had to reward myself with some of my favorite foods, since hey, I missed breakfast and couldn’t eat for a few hours after that. What’s a person to do!!
Well, we’ll see what the insurance pays but I did call their number and worked my way through their voice menus to get a feel for what they pay for and what they don’t. So we’ll see.
I’m sure this was an extremely interesting post for your to read but the point is, how would you pay for a root canal? Since I’ve been a saver and investor for over 25 years I only needed to pay for my minimum $214.00 out of my checking account.
But I know, around 25 years ago, I would have been wondering, how am I going to pay for this?.