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Comment by chiph | Hacker News Reader

My dentist has a jar in his waiting room full of the stems left over from all the crowns he's placed (he uses the CEREC system). No idea why he thinks people would be interested in seeing them while they wait, but I observe that each one represents about $1800 in billing revenue. And there's hundreds of them in there.

The material is interesting - it starts off as a lavender color, but after curing in the oven you get a shade which is a close match to your natural tooth color (they have charts/samples to pick a match before the milling is done).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CEREC

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> each one represents about $1800 in billing revenue.

Do you mean that it costs a patient USD1800 to get a crown?

I have two crowns both made and installed at the same dental practice in Drammen, Norway, using, I think, the CEREC system. At one time he had a screen mounted above the couch so that you could see it being shaped while you waited.

Including the initial consultation, the crown itself, and the fitting I paid about NOK5000 each. That's about USD580 at today's exchange rate, about USD750 at the rate that was in force when I had them done.

It's important to note that in the US (not sure about Norway), the revenue from a procedure, and the out of pocket cost that a person pays is not the same due to insurance. A procedure could cost a very small amount out of pocket, but still provide significant revenue to a doctor if is insurance is paying for a large portion of the procedure.

i guess the 1800 per crown also include the root canal treatment

i think it is usually around 600-800 USD for the root canal treatment and around 1000 for the crown

Ah, perhaps we are talking about different things here. My crowns are just that, quite a lot of the original tooth is still there.

But it still seems to me that you are being seriously ripped off in the US.

What's a crown worth though?

Dentists have been successful in limiting the number of dentists, so decent ones can charge good money.

The terrifying thing is that they tend to do a lot more out of pocket business than doctors/hospitals and so the prices for dental care are generally lower than the prices for similar healthcare (they often do first appointment x-rays for free, or for cheap; hospitals will charge $200+ just for something that needs 2 or 3 x-rays).

> Do you mean that it costs a patient USD1800 to get a crown?

That's what he charges and gets paid. Of that, the insurance company will pay around half, with the patient paying the rest.

Compared to medical billing in the US, it's a miracle of clarity. I suspect because people are more willing to change dentists, and even with a sore tooth, they're willing to pick someone who is better/cheaper. So there's some price pressure by the customer.

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