Let’s face it – you most certainly don’t want a situation where you can’t trust your dentist. Basically, you want to be able to trust your dentist for the same reason you trust your electrician or car mechanic – you don’t have any of the expertise required to assess the situation. It is as simple and straightforward as that, whether you are talking about cosmetic dentistry in Melbourne or normal dentistry anywhere else.
Now let’s not set off any alarms at this point about dentist being unethical. On the whole, most of them are extremely ethical and know their job inside out. However, there are quite a number of dental scams across the board that people tend to fall for, year after year. In this particular regard, it would be wise of you not to forget the fact that a mere degree on the wall doesn’t really guarantee the fact that the dentist will be honest with you.
Furthermore, when all of them are added up, this can mean a great amount of money for all those masquerading as actual professional dentists out there.
- Phoney insurance billing: This basically implies that dishonest dental services may end up billing insurance providers for expensive dental procedures that were not even performed in the first place. In a nutshell, they will end up completely fabricating all the medical charges.
Known as ‘upcoding’ in the insurance industry, you definitely need to be on the alert at all times to spot the facade. Make absolutely sure of the fact that you check your explanation of benefits. - The submission of multiple claims: This usually means that dentists will try and exaggerate a claim. Like the breakdown of a complex procedure such as a root canal will be used to levy a charge for each and every part of the procedure, even though they are meant to charge you for the whole procedure.
In this case, you will need to be as proactive as possible to prevent this from happening. Make sure that you have a treatment plan as well as your dentist to re-estimate the cost of treatments before anything gets confirmed. - Unnecessary procedures: Whenever you are asked to bite your teeth on elaborate devices or putting crowns on healthy teeth, that should be enough of a warning for you. Not only are those completely unnecessary, but could cause your perfectly healthy set of teeth to deteriorate.
In fact, you should be wary of any suggestions about the undertaking of extreme surgery in every way. Make sure that you research on this as a great many procedures out there have left the patients much worse off than ever before.
At the end of the day, if you want to make sure that your wallet isn’t torn to shreds due to you falling for a variety of dental scams, you need to keep an eye out for all the aforementioned scams. As simple as that. Most of all, if you don’t happen to have dental insurance of any kind, you can be sure of the fact that dental scams will end up eating into your hard-earned savings.
That last sentence should be enough of a warning. After all, the last thing you would want is your hard-earned money to go down the drain simply because you weren’t aware of any dental scams. A study done in the States estimates that most Americans end up losing a good $68 million dollars on a yearly basis to health care fraud as a whole. All the more reason for you to be vigilant and aware at all times.
