Paying for dental care is a actually much easier than you might think. Since dental insurance is not nearly as ubiquitous as health insurance (many employers provide limited plans, if anything at all), many dental offices must operate under the assumption that a large percentage of their patients are not covered. Believe it or not, this helps keep the prices much lower than they would be otherwise.
The biggest factor that works to your advantage is that a local dentist's office wants and cares about your business! That's right, as dentists are not typically governed by some large consortium or group (there are some exceptions) and operate as small businesses, they are much more open to keeping you happy as a customer. Additionally, most dentists are very upfront on the cost of procedures before you get them done. Although you may have a good personal relationship with your doctor as well, your doctor likely does not handle all billing internally (there are exceptions of course), and may not be aware of your ability to pay or not to pay. Additionally, because of the heavy influence of insurance, doctors will not typically post a fee schedule for rendered services beyond the cost of an office visit. This can lead to big problems if you wind up with a bill that's unexpected - whether you have insurance or not. Worse, billing can be so bad from doctors offices - that the first bill you might receive will be from a collection agency. Bad news.
