Dear All,

I extremely need your piece of advice. I went to a dentist office. I was going to put two crowns on my teeth. After xrays the denitst said that the root canal of one of the teeth was OK (#1), another required the root canal to be redone - it was not completely filled with the filling (#2). He insisted to do this procedure as long as the insurance company would not approve the crown for that tooth. As he said he submitted the approval request for the #1 tooth. 40 days have passed but no notice has come from the insurance company?

1) My first question: what is regular response time for the crown approval requests? (I guess he is cheating).

2) My second question: is it really true that the insurance company would NOT approve the crown for a tooth which has already had the root canal procedure done (nerve tissues are removed) but the root canal itself was 70% filled (not completely), no pain at all.

He told me that he accepts the Delta Dental Coverages.I asked how much would I have to pay for that procedure? He told me: "It depends. Usually they cover some percentage." I showed him a list of the scheduled coveraged by Delta Dental Premium. But he didn't answer. He made an impression that root canal procedure would not be expensive for me.

So he did the root canal procedure in two days (each day about 1 hour long).

I received a "notice of payment or action" from Delta Dental.

Based on it he submitted the charges even higher than the maximum amounts approved for every single procedure he did.

Besides that he did core buildup for that tooth (#2) and amalgam-two surfaces for another tooth.

Based on that bill, the insurance company paid $578, I have to pay $410. The charge originally he submitted is $1135.

3) My third question: is a dentist allowed to do a procedure (probably it was neccessary) without letting know how much it would cost to a patient?

4) My fourth question: is the procedure for the #2 tooth is really called "root canal therapy-molar". This tooth was really molar. But the nerve and tooth tissues were already removed (by another dentist, in another country) and the root canal was filled. He charged for that $660 but the insurance approved only $630. I guess that procedure might be called differently and cost cheaper.

I know there are many questions and you don't know all the details. But I have to decide whether to pay $410 or not to this dentist. I came to him to put two crowns but received another procedure and have to pay $410. I didn't sign in his office any paper that I agree to pay any charges concerned with the treatment. I told them that I would not sign the blank form without any numbers. I only signed that the information about my insurance company, my name and address is true.

I got used to know how much something would cost for me before buying that product or service.

So, should I pay that $410 bill?

Thank you,
Maxim.

P.S. PA, Philadelphia