Re: Proper Approach for 2nd Opinion?

equesnel@xxxxxxx wrote:

Forgive the top posting. I'm responding through google groups because
your original message does not show up in my dinosaur newsreader. I
could only see responses to your post.

I'm curious about your statement that the laser will take longer to
"explode" (geez, does it have to explode??) the decayed part of the
tooth. In my understanding, the laser is painless and doesn't require
numbing. Does the fact that it will take longer affect the quality of
the work done?

I appreciate your response, and I am trying to figure out which dentist
to use. My niece has gone to the first dentist since she was very
little, and he has been very good to her and has not caused her to be
afraid like I am. Maybe you can tell me what you think of his prices
-- I have an estimate here in front of me. The first item is "onlay 4
surf (porcelain) -- $1,101.00." Is this a good price? I think that
just means replace an old filling -- yes?

I'm trying to do my homework. Cost is important. I'm on early
retirement and get a small pension. I was forced out before I reached
full retirement because I was sick a lot with Meniere's Disease. OK,
sad story over -- back to basics. I want to get my teeth fixed if I
can. I am going to have numbers 21, 28, and 29 removed by an oral
surgeon the first week of February. I went to see him today, and he
gave me a price of $860. Sounds reasonable since I will be in la-la
land and won't have to go through the procedure awake. He says my
other teeth are good -- look strong -- and should be fixable. Trouble
is -- I'm looking at about $7,000 that would wipe me out. So I really
need to research prices.

Whatever advice/help you can offer is very much appreciated. This
whole thing gives me a headache. The problems are my fault -- stayed
away from dentists a long time because of fear and some bad treatment.
I found a good one -- very skilled, but not a nice man. He scared me
away again, and now I'm losing these three teeth that could've been
saved if I hadn't been so scared. Now that you've read this whole long
message (at least I hope you have), can you advise me?

Thank you, Eva


Eva:

I'm sure Alex can speak for himself, but the "explode" part is a bit...florid. There is a popping noise from water particles being energized. Laser advocates say it is pain free, but I've gotten differing opinions. Since you are not using pressure as you would with a drill there is little heat generation within the substance of the tooth. I doubt very much that it would be totally pain-free, esp. if you're close to the nerve, but there may well be an advantage.
Still, I look at it this way. Even if the pain is less, to be totally relaxed you will want to know you will have no pain, and there's no way to guarantee that without local anesthesia if the patient is conscious. Once you have well-administered anesthesia, it doesn't matter from a pain standpoint whether you're using a laser for decay removal or a low-speed handpiece with a #8 round bur. I can equip my operatory with handpieces for a couple of thousand bucks. The laser may be $20-30K. There is nothing you can do on hard tissue with a laser that you can't do with a high-speed and a low-speed air driven handpieces more quickly and obviously more cheaply. If money is a concern, I would go for solid, well-done restorative dentistry and skip the ray gun razzle dazzle.
Call me an old fart--I'll pass on the laser.

Steve

On Jan 21, 1:22 pm, "Alexander Vasserman DDS" <purple543...@xxxxxxxx>
wrote:

couple of things.
a laser is not going to give you any kind of advantage over the modern
drill. In fact it will take longer to explode away the decayed tooth
structure.
having a second dentist treat you, you may find a considerable
difference in philosophy and the amount of work that is recommended to
be done. If you are happy with your current dentist and the only thing
that is stopping you from continuing is cost on a few fillings, you may
find that taking a chance with someone else long term this may not be
the best cost savings. There are patients that switch for this reason
end up going to a cheaper clinic to then having to return to the
original dentist or someone else with far more work and problems.

That said if you still want to visit the other office, ask them to
obtain the records for you. But my advice is to stick to one office it
makes things a lot easier for warranty purposes and you are dealing
with somebody who knows your mouth.



Eva Quesnell wrote:

I want to ask my dentist in town to share the X-rays and results with a
dentist nearer to me. What is the proper way to approach this? I don't
want to ruffle any feathers, but I do want to see if the dentist closer to
me has lower prices for re-doing some ancient fillings. The dentist in
town uses a laser for small cavities. I want to see if I can have the
dentist with the laser fill the small cavities in front and do the
"cosmetic" parts of what I need done. How do I go about letting both of
these dentists know that I want to "use" each one for different things
without upsetting either one of them?

The dentist in town is extravagantly expensive, I think. I have an
appointment with his dental hygienist next month. I have an appointment
for a consultation with the dentist nearer to me in March.

Do dentists get insulted by this kind of thing? I want to handle this in
a professional manner and need a little advice about how to tell them.
I'm sort of a timid person, but I need to stand up for myself here and
insist on doing this my way.

Thanks in advance for any advice you have.

Eva- Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text -




--
Mark & Steven Bornfeld DDS
http://www.dentaltwins.com
Brooklyn, NY
718-258-5001
.

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