The Elephant in the Room

The “Elephant in the Room” in dentistry is always going to be the cost of amazing care. So let’s talk about why biological dentistry is so darned expensive and why any dentist who chooses this path tends to go out of network and fee for service as quickly as they can.

I have written before about the sheer cost of setting up just a plain old regular dental office. It runs about a half million dollars per treatment room! That is for any dental office anywhere. Not biological. Then there are regular dental equipment “upgrades” that ALL dentists want, because we 100% believe it makes us better dentists to have the best equipment. Things like the CBCT machines. And the CAD/CAM machines. And the Digital X-rays and scanners. And what I fondly call our “hundred thousand dollar baby” - our Fotona Lightwalker Erbium YAG/ ND YAG laser, that allows us to do so many different things on our patients. They not only make our ability to diagnose better, but also are much more comfortable and practical to have, making the patient and the doctor experience better or faster or more amazing. These “upgrades” alone make it so that most docs who have them make the decision to dump the insurance companies.

Then comes the biological equipment. Like the specialized air filters, the need to have several kinds of materials on hand for our patients because not everyone is compatible with the same stuff. Things like the EAV machine so that we can reestablish meridians during surgery. And the PRF centrifuge so that we can enhance patient healing.  

Lastly is the sheer amount of continuing education required. Our state board requires dentists to have a mere 12 hours of CE per year to keep their license. Any regular dentist worth their salt takes FAR more than that. Biological dentists are no exception to that. We are CE junkies by any standard. Biological dentists generally take 150+ hours of CE per year. We often take extra courses that don’t qualify for CE credits with our state boards as well. All in an effort to help our patients reestablish their systemic health by eliminating the oral contributions to their health issues.

The first photo you see is what our Safe amalgam removal process looks like. It’s definitely “extra” compared to what a conventional office amalgam removal looks like. Y’all should see how “extra” our extractions are!  We have invested, both for our own protection and our patients, in extra continuing education, technology, equipment, and consumables, that we may provide for our patients the very best and safest amalgam removal experience, the very best surgical experiences. We do this because we believe our patients are absolutely worth the extra effort. But we also do it because our team members and doctors are also worth the extra effort.

All of this is to say that, while we totally understand that biological dentistry is not cheap, it costs what it costs because of the extra expense from all of that continuing education, technology, equipment, and consumables. We completely understand that we can’t be everyone’s dentist. Those who choose to see us value the sheer investments we have made for their benefit. Our patients understand that money doesn’t tell you what you can do. It just tells you how FAST you can go. And it’s perfectly ok to go a bit slower if you need to.

To that end, and because we understand that the cost of dentistry can absolutely be a true financial burden, we have partnered with several companies to help manage the burden that is incurred when needs are great. One we have had in place for many years. That is the Care Credit service. But recently, while we were at our Smile Source convention, we learned of a company called https://www.icreditworks.com/, who offer even better options for making dental care affordable for people.  So if that is a service that you would find helpful to your family’s needs, please reach out to us and our business team can help walk you through the application process.