grindinG teeth

Lizard Queen

Hi
i had a bit of tooth sensitivity and i went to the dentist, he told me i was grinding my teeth in my sleep and that i was wearing my teeth down and my jaw joint and that i would beed a mouth gaurd that i wear at night that costs 600. Has anybody else had this problem thanks

MIRMIR82

oh my god 600? i had all those problems - got mouthguard(which works) it cost me 90 euro. go to different dentist he's robbing u.

TheBody

Yea, your dentist is robbing you. My dentist in Leixlip wanted €100 for one for me.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Hard all acrylic night splint = proper splint = expensive
Soft splint = makes things worse = cheap
Google the difference.

ballsymchugh

fitz, even by your standards 600 is overboard.
op are you sure it was just for the splint, or was there other work included?

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Thats true ballsy, 600 is a bit steep for a night splint expect to pay 300-500 euro but it depends. A dentist in ballsbridge will charge more than a dentist in ballylanders. A specialist will charge more than a general dentist.

You should expect to pay less than 100 euro for a soft splint but that money down to drain.

ballsymchugh

Nathan Tender Condo wrote: »

Thats true ballsy, 600 is a bit steep for a night splint expect to pay 300-500 euro but it depends. A dentist in ballsbridge will charge more than a dentist in ballylanders. A specialist will charge more than a general dentist.

You should expect to pay less than 100 euro for a soft splint but that money down to drain.

actually, cheapest endodontist in dublin is in ballsbridge!

btkm8unsl0w5r4

ballsymchugh wrote: »

actually, cheapest endodontist in dublin is in ballsbridge!

PM me the details:D

MIRMIR82

Well i have the soft mouth-guard. I did find it hard to get used to. but it has stopped me grinding my teeth.

Lizard Queen

600 was just for the gaurd ut was hard arcylic and the dentist was is leixlip on the main street cant name the place for obvious reasons but i thought it was a bit expensive

garhjw

€600 sounds way off to me. most i have paid for a bit guard is €200

Lizard Queen

I think i should get a 2nd opinion sorry if my.posts only make a bit of sense im dyslexic

DublinWriter

WTF? My own D4 dentist is a tad-pricey and he made me (sorry, the dental technician he out-sourced the job to) a bite-guard for €175.

Your dentist is extracting the p*ss @ €600.

Lizard Queen

Dublin writer can i ask why exactly you got your mouth gaurd, to see if its anything simular to my situation

Clinical Dental tech

hi LQ, the cost is tooooo much. a hard acrylic bite splint is very difficult to wear. you should look for a dual laminate splint hard on the biting surface and soft on the fitting surface. this would cost 100. <snip>

Big_G

Clinical dental tech, that is questionable advice. Please do not solicit business here, if you want to advertise please contact boards admin staff.

Knit wit

I had a splint made by a specialist in D4 also - it set me back 750 - but imho it was money well spent. I had been to my local dentist who tried me with the soft guard before referring me on for the rigid one. The ammount of work in fitting etc goes some way to justify the cost - the fitting alone took over an hour - but has made such a difference - no more pain 6 months on!

DublinWriter

Knit wit wrote: »

I had a splint made by a specialist in D4 also - it set me back 750

Insane money.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

DublinWriter wrote: »

Insane money.

The poster feels its a good investment after seeing all the work thats involved and the difference over a rubbish splint, there are massive differences between splints in material and design and different people need different splints for different reasons.

A lot of the fee is for diagnostic (dependent on time, training and tests involved), fitting and check visits along with the manufacture of the device itself. Its a service not just an item of hardware. Most inferior splints are just impression, fit and forget. A proper splint is much much more involved.

Its a bit like somebody saying that 24k for a car is insane.....well what type of car, import?, spec?, brand, new or second hand....don't you think .

DublinWriter

Nathan Tender Condo wrote: »

The poster feels its a good investment after seeing all the work thats involved and the difference over a rubbish splint, there are massive differences between splints in material and design and different people need different splints for different reasons. Generalizing your own experiences leads to poor advice in general.

I can't believe you'd even attempt to defend an Irish dentist charging €750 for a hard composite plastic bite-guard.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but basically the process is:

- Dentist takes impressions from initial consultation.
- Dentists sends impressions to dental technician.
- Dentist receives bite-guard from technician and 'fine-tunes' bite-guard with drilling, if necessary during subsequent patient consultation.

Now, considering that the dental technician has charged you no more than €200, please tell me where the remaining €550 worth of your 'chair-time' goes in the above process?

ballsymchugh

fitz, what thread did you post the photos of the two splints... the average everyday one and the one that you'd be partial to? pictures paint a thousand words.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

ballsymchugh wrote: »

fitz, what thread did you post the photos of the two splints... the average everyday one and the one that you'd be partial to? pictures paint a thousand words.

The thread is here ballsy http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=65492566

DublinWriter wrote: »

I can't believe you'd even attempt to defend an Irish dentist charging €750 for a hard composite plastic bite-guard.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but basically the process is:

- Dentist takes impressions from initial consultation.
- Dentists sends impressions to dental technician.
- Dentist receives bite-guard from technician and 'fine-tunes' bite-guard with drilling, if necessary during subsequent patient consultation.

Now, considering that the dental technician has charged you no more than €200, please tell me where the remaining €550 worth of your 'chair-time' goes in the above process?

Excellent you fell for it.:)

Firstly its acrylic not composite the process involved is (but not limited) to the following for a specialist all acrylic michigan type splint.

1. Diagnois, treatment planning etc. Visit one
2. Impressions upper and lower high accuracy usually PVS on the fitting jaw. (Visit two)
3. Jaw record (this is where it gets good) usually people who need splints are in postural positions and need relaxing into a more ideal repeatable jaw position. this can infact take several visits in some patients (and even sometimes involve making temporary splints...like the one your describe above). I prefer to use lucia jigs others use different techniques. Once the position can be identified its is registered a couple of times in wax or silicone.
4. Facebow or earbow record to register the hinge axis and arc of closure.
5. Pouring the casts and mounting of the casts (need to be a removable mounting) on an articulator, checking that the mounting is accurate by checking it against the patient.
6. Decide on the vertical dimension, taking into consideration symptoms, acrylic thickness and splint design.
7. If you send them to a lab, the lab steps are. Blocking out the work cast undercuts, waxing of the splint on the articulator to ensure guidance and even simultaneous contacts. Embedding of the clasps if any. Flasking of the working model. Boilout of the wax. Opening the flask and separating the models. Packing and trial closure of the acrylic. Curing of the acrylic. Deflasking. Trimming and polishing of the splint and remounting and checking the occlusion on the articulator, returned to dentist. (my technician charges me more than 200 euro for this, but they are really nice so I am happy to pay it). Cheap splints are often cold cured acrylic which is porous (gets smelly and yellow) and not hard wearing.
8. Patient returns and the splint is checked for fit and the clasps adjusted. The bite is carefully adjusted for a certain type of bite pattern both clenching and grinding in all directions, this can take over an hour. Instructions are given and a recall is scheduled.
9. Recall 10 days and 1 months to check the bite, readjust the bite as it will have altered slightly.
10. Recall every 3-6 months to monitor symptoms, wear and adjust the bite to ensure guidance is maintained.

Thats in short what is involved and is included in a 750 euro specialist splint (many charge more). That level of attention to detail and application of knowledge is not required for every case and you can find many cheaper but they will have a far lower spec, little attention for detail and are really just lumps of bite propping plastic (and basically involve the steps you outlined, take a lot less time and are much more profitable for the dentist per time unit). Making blanket statements about costs based on your own limited experiences and knowledge of a massive area of dentistry is not a true representation of the complexity of the matter. Thats why costs vary.

Some people focus too much on items of treatment and their relative costs without any concept that there is a range of specification, quality and artistry for each "item". Some people are willing to pay more for an "item" like a splint because their splint is more complex, higher quality, better made, takes more time. is more durable and maybe made by someone with more experience and knowledge or offering and better service.

How much is a steak, how much is a painting, how much is a holiday? how much is a book?