I need to see a dentist. The company I work for does not offer dental insurance and when I purchased my individual health insurance policy, the salesman advised me that individual dental insurance policies are pretty much a waste of money in that the coverage and payout is very small verses the premium.
A little over a year ago, I had some emergency dental work done by a dentist I had not dealt with before. The experience was very negative. The dentist lied to me about the availability and coverage of discount dental plans - including the dental discount plan that I later found out this dentist was a member of. At the very least, I paid a few thousand dollars more than I should have. I also suspect it is possible I had work done that was not necessary - I had to make a decision as to whether to save a tooth at great expense at the very last moment with a drill in my mouth which I suspect is rather odd.
Some years ago, I had another negative experience at a different dentist - he wanted to pull a tooth when a filling would have worked. The dentist was new in the office and the receptionist actually suggested that I reconsider his suggestion. I went to another dentist who confirmed that removing the tooth would have been very unnecessary and painful - but it would have boosted my dental bill up.
For reasons you probably can see, I am very spooked by the prospect of going to another dentist and feel about as cautious as I would if I were going to visit a used car salesman.
I now have a dental discount plan which offers significant price breaks over the I had done a year ago. The catch is I must use a dentist who is a member of the plan. I have no idea whether the dentists on the plan are decent or whether they are shysters - and I have no idea how to find out.
Below, I am going to reproduce a list of some of the providers in the Fort Worth area who are listed as members in the plan. If anybody has had experience with these dentists - positive or negative - I would very much appreciate hearing from you. If you are hesitant about expressing your views on the subject in public, then please let me know. If you have positive experiences with dentists outside of the geographical area of the dentists listed (the search I did only does it by geography) let me know too and I can see if they might be on the list.
A little over a year ago, I had some emergency dental work done by a dentist I had not dealt with before. The experience was very negative. The dentist lied to me about the availability and coverage of discount dental plans - including the dental discount plan that I later found out this dentist was a member of. At the very least, I paid a few thousand dollars more than I should have. I also suspect it is possible I had work done that was not necessary - I had to make a decision as to whether to save a tooth at great expense at the very last moment with a drill in my mouth which I suspect is rather odd.
Some years ago, I had another negative experience at a different dentist - he wanted to pull a tooth when a filling would have worked. The dentist was new in the office and the receptionist actually suggested that I reconsider his suggestion. I went to another dentist who confirmed that removing the tooth would have been very unnecessary and painful - but it would have boosted my dental bill up.
For reasons you probably can see, I am very spooked by the prospect of going to another dentist and feel about as cautious as I would if I were going to visit a used car salesman.
I now have a dental discount plan which offers significant price breaks over the I had done a year ago. The catch is I must use a dentist who is a member of the plan. I have no idea whether the dentists on the plan are decent or whether they are shysters - and I have no idea how to find out.
Below, I am going to reproduce a list of some of the providers in the Fort Worth area who are listed as members in the plan. If anybody has had experience with these dentists - positive or negative - I would very much appreciate hearing from you. If you are hesitant about expressing your views on the subject in public, then please let me know. If you have positive experiences with dentists outside of the geographical area of the dentists listed (the search I did only does it by geography) let me know too and I can see if they might be on the list.
