Root Canal

Nitha:
I went to India last year and did dental work at that time. I have a great dentist in Delhi and I needed a couple crowns. I had some other work I wanted him to do also. I figured that what he did for Rs38,000 would have cost $10,000 in the US. His prices: root canal $75 and crown $100. You can have a vacation in India, do your dental and still save money. Just so you know, the dental labs charge about $75 for a crown to the dentist here in the US, the other $1925 less who knows how much overhead is his profit.

 

Nitha ,

In India , even the best dentists will do the root canal with single crown [ expense depends on the crown quality that you have selected ] for a reasonable amount < Rs.10,000.It is quite common in India and so you don't have to worry about it.

I would advise if you are planning for vacation sometime then you may as well do it in India but if it is quite urgent then think about it.

I can understand that the private medical treatment is really expensive in places like US and UK and insurance is a must or else we will not be able to afford the bill.

I can't think of any complications associated with root canal treatment.Hope this information is useful.

 

Nitha:
Well you asked....poor people in USA unless they have welfare payments cannot afford dental and there are no govt hospitals like India where they can go. What happens is that they can afford to have the tooth extracted when the pain gets too bad ...for $35 or $50. When I used to live with the hill people (aka hillbillies) in WV there were still some folks who would pull out their own teeth with pliers. To get on welfare you need to be a senior citizen and destitute or you are handicapped or you are a woman with children (controversially most feel that the govt in this way promotes unwedded households and multiple unwed pregnancies) and then you can get vouchers to go to a dental clinic which may or may not have good dental care. Men or women without children cannot get on welfare.

To make matters worse, I have lost confidence in any quality here to either medical or dental care and there is absolutely no correlation between cost and quality. Some years ago I got a crown here which was never right and at a cost of about $1000. The dentist had this guarantee that he would replace the crown if it was not good. Well, it wasn't good so I told him to replace it. He did that and the second one was also not good. They I started having pain and went back and he says I probably need a root canal. I am thinking why would I suddenly be needing a root canal? So when I went to India on my next trip I got recommendations from the neighbors (actually a number all to the same dentist...good sign) and went over for a consult. He checked me and said the only reason you are having pain is your crown doesn't fit. He ground it down and then it was fine (Rs600). (Grrrrrrr!)

A couple years later when my mom was dying and I was taking care of her alone, I was grinding my teeth at night (no surprise huh?) and I broke two of them badly. I knew it was going to be really expensive! I didn't want to go back to that dentist and then a lot of the other dentists locally had closed practices and were not taking new patients. Finally someone refers me to this dentist in the next town who is an "esthetic dentist" from Ghana. (!!!!!) I go over to try to get a temporary crown thinking it will be like $75. I get there and they tell me he is going to charge me $485 for a stupid temp crown. I got up and left. Six months later I had my next trip to India and I got all my work done and its great. The Indian dentist uses far fewer horrible chemicals and I don't have sore teeth for weeks after he is done. I have absolutely no wish any more to do my dental work in the states and I say that even if I had 100% dental insurance.