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Low-cost or Free Dental Care

Berkeley Parents Network > Reviews > Health & Medical > Dentists > Low-cost or Free Dental Care



Affordable cosmetic dentistry

Aug 2005

I like my dentist, but he charges $1000/tooth to do cosmetic dentistry, which is not covered by my insurance. He recommends and I would like to get a veneer for the top lateral incisor (small tooth next to the central incisors) to make it similar in size and lineup to the teeth on either side. This is probably the easiest cosmetic procedure you could have. I can't justify paying that amount of money for it. Any recommendations? Mary Ann

Recommended:

  • A People-Oriented Dental Practice SF

    Student without dental insurance

    July 2004

    I am a Cal student and need to have dental work done, but I have no dental insurance. Please recommend a caring, excellent, reasonable dentist.


    Are you sure you don't have dental insurance? If you have SHIP (the UC Berkeley student health insurance plan, which is automatic unless you opt out), you already have reasonably good dental coverage. See http://www.uhs.berkeley.edu/students/insurance/dentalannouncement.shtml

    If you did opt out of SHIP, the above web page suggests an alternate insurance plan, but it doesn't seem like an especially good deal to me. David


    If you are a Cal student and have the mandatory health insurance SHIP, you have automatic dental insurance that is quite good. If you have submitted a waiver with proof of other insurance, then you must find your own dental solutions. If you have not done this, then you definitely have dental insurance that is current for whatever semester you have registered for (I actually think that the plan is good for a year, but I'm not positive). Call the Tang Center if you are not sure and have them check for you. I have SHIP and use the dental plan through it. It covers most if not all of the usual dental concerns (cleanings, xrays, wisdom teeth, fillings, etc). Good luck! Freyja
    I would highly recommend looking into dental schools. I had some potentially very expensive work done at a dental school (this was in Portland) almost 10 years ago...I'm missing some front teeth that just never came in. The dental school was 1/3 the cost, and I had students doing the work under the supervision of their professors. They did a great job! Even my regular dentist (now that I have insurance) was impressed with the work. ed
    April 2004

    About a year ago my wisdom teeth started coming in, and have since really started to give me quite a bit of pain. Also, recently my gums started bleeding when I was brushing my teeth, which I do twice a day as well as flossing once. I am a student and I don't have dental insurance. Are there any resources that I can look into for low cost dental care? I am getting really worried.


    Lifelong Dental Care can probably help you. Lifelong offers a wide variety of of dental services and the dentists are truly wonderful. They offer services at sliding fee which is based on income. If you have little income as a student you would probably qualify for some discount. Also, Medi-Cal covers many ''kids'' so if you under a certain age, 18?, you may be eligible for pretty decent dental coverage that way. Call their member services number is 704-6000 or 6010 (I am not sure which), these guys can help you figure out if you are eligible for benefits. They also have medical clinics, btw. A Lifelong Employee
    UOP and UCSF both have dental clinics that are low cost. You have student dentists working on you, but they are closely supervised by professors. Likely the students are better at UCSF, but pretty good at UOP too. Strangely enough, as I just did a websearch, I found this:

    Free Dental Screening Date: Tuesday, April 27th, 2004 from 5:30-7:30pm

    Free Dental Screening Site: UCSF Dental clinic, 2nd Floor (707 Parnassus, cross street is 4th Avenue.)

    UOP Dental CLinic http://www.dental.uop.edu/

    Clinica La Raza also has a dental component. Check here: http://www.laclinica.org/services_dental.html


    May 2000

    RE: low-cost dentist

    Try the UCSF School of Dentistry: 415-476-3276 They apparently do very good work.
    Peggy


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