# Is the dentist taking me for a ride?



## Skinnyneo

Hi everybody! I'm new to these forums and am looking for some advice.

I work at a private school and through this school I get insurance. On my paycheck it comes up as "Kyosai" which I think is shakai hoken.

Anyway I went to the dentist the other day as I chipped a tooth and it turns out I needed some work done. They drilled out two teeth and put in two fillings. This was fine but the bill came to 94,500 yen! I talked with a few other and they said that that is insanely expensive with the insurance that I have. 

What I want to know is what is others experience with Japanese dentists and their prices. With insurance does this sound right? It seems pretty expensive to me!


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## lorgnette

*No*

No. 

It depends on your insurance. Ours was great, and price low so we adhered to his recommendations to redo all old fillings and a crown at cleaning. It costs so much lower than the States and Canada. I appreciate his professional, thorough observation and dedicated after work service. He fitted all our dental work into his schedule. Yes, a crown in Japan takes 3 visits as the excavation, xray is separate from inserting core and crown.

Probably you had an emergency case and had more dental work done than you expected.


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## Rube

You have to pay 30% of the total bill and anything that is covered by insurance the government dictates the price. A typical filling should cost you around 2,000 yen, to take the root out and and stuff should cost about 5,000 yen.

Sounds to me like you paid the full price unless the dentist did work that wasn't covered by insurance, but then it would be much more expensive. A ceramic crown costs around 50,000 yen where a metal one which is covered by insurance would be like 2,000 yen. 

Ask your company to take a look at the bill or ask the doctor again.


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## Danica30

that's about the cost of dental work in Japan. I had a lot of dental work done while I was there none of it covered by insurance (they call is cosmetic dental work) and it cost me close to 1 million yen by the time the dentist was done. KEEP ALL YOU RECEIPTS you can claim part of your payment when tax return time comes, just don`t forget to file in time.


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