Do you need to have a lot of dental work done? If the cost of the treatment plan that your dentist has presented to you seems rather expensive, you might want to find out if your dentist is charging higher than average fees for your area of the country.
I’d previously written about an easy way to find the average dental costs in your area, but it had some limitations. One big limitation was that there were only a few dental procedures for which you could view the corresponding fees.
Recently, FAIR Health, Inc. created a website that allows consumers to estimate their dental costs based on the area in which they live. Unlike the previous dental cost estimator that I wrote about, FAIR Health’s dental cost look-up site allows you to look up the average costs for a variety of different procedures, including:
- Anesthesia and Sedation (Nitrous)
- Bridges
- Cleaning, Fluorides and Sealants
- Crowns (Caps)
- Dentures (Complete & Partial)
- Emergency Treatment-Palliative
- Endodontics – Root Canals
- Exams and Consults
- Extractions and Impactions
- Fillings
- Implants
- Periodontal (Gum) Services
- X-rays
How to Find The Average Dental Fees In Your Area
FAIR Health’s website is FAIRly easy to navigate (sorry, I couldn’t resist!) All you have to do to find the average dental fees in your area is to go to fairhealthconsumer.org/dentalcostlookup and type your zip code in the box, and then type in a dental procedure or select one from their list.
A Cost Comparison Between New York and Mississippi
Just for fun, I decided to find out the average cost of three different types of crowns in Hattiesburg, Mississippi versus how much they would cost in Manhattan, New York.
The three types of crowns that I ran a cost analysis on are:
- A tooth-colored crown made entirely of ceramic
- A tooth-colored crown made of a metal base, covered by a layer of ceramic
- A gold-colored crown
As evidenced by the screenshots below, you might want to take a road trip down to Mississippi if you need a few crowns done, as they are less than half the cost of getting the same crowns done in New York.
Final Thoughts
It’s important to remember that these services are only as good as the data that they have on file. They may not get their data from your dentist in particular.
Also, their “average” dental fee appears to be around the 80th percentile, which isn’t really average.
Overall, I would say that this is a good way to figure out if your dentist’s fees are in line with the average dental fees in your area.
Do you have any questions or comments about dental fees in your area? Do you know of any other ways to estimate dental fees? I’d love to hear what you have to say in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!
For the record, I have no affiliation with FAIR Health, Inc. and simply wrote this post because I believe that they provide a helpful service.
I’m surprised that the cost of the gold crown is less
than the all ceramic crown just based on the price
of gold right now. I will share this site with my students, fellow
instructors, family, & friends….just about everyone. Another
great post!
Thanks for the comment, Angela! Some of the prices did surprise me as well. The gold crown at my school is also cheaper than the other two. They might just put in less real gold when it is expensive and use more of the other noble metals. I’m not sure though…