$200 dental cleaning?

OSPAM (Dtanyol) wrote:

I was holding my tongue on this discussion of cost, because my own costs were
much higher. I thought it was because my cat had 3 extractions. But then I
read
the post below, which includes the same number of extractions. My cat's
dental
work (including pre-screening blood work and extra anesthesia) ended up
costing
about $700. The blood work was about $125, each extraction about $65. I'm
outside Philadelphia. Ai-yi-yi-yi. (It's a new vet for me, specializing only
in
cats. I didn't shop around, because they seemed to know what they were doing,
unlike my previous vet, but maybe I should have.)

Well, that does sound high. I'm in Chicago, so I would think the vet costs
would be comparable to other major urban areas. I don't think my invoice was
broken down to a cost per extraction, but there was a charge for an additional
15 minutes of anesthesia, plus a charge for IV fluids during the surgery. The
reason I was given for the surgery taking longer than expected was that the vet
did not discover the two rear molars were bad until after cleaning the teeth.

We also paid for a chest x-ray ($65) post-surgery but I didn't include that in
the charge I listed for the dental work, because that was due to our cat's
unusual reaction to the anesthesia. I don't think an x-ray would normally be
done for a six year old cat.

It's hard to say whether you should call around next time your cat needs dental
work. IMO I'd rather go to a vet I know and trust than shop around.



That seems a little high unless the cat is older and needs pre-anesthesia
testing, or if there are extractions. Our last bill (about a month ago) was
around $240 but she had three teeth extracted. This required a longer than
normal time under anesthesia.

However, I don't think $200 for a cleaning is exorbitant, just a little on
the
high side. You may find someone else to do it a little cheaper, but since
you
never know what you're going to find while cleaning the teeth--there may be
decay or other problems hidden by the tartar--I think you should be prepared
that it may well end up costing at least $200 anyway.

wrote:

My cat Cassie was in for a dental last week and had 3 teeth removed. She
is older and had to have a full blood panel done before the dental. I
also chose to have a catheter during surgery. The total cost, including
bloodwork, extractions, and the extra anesthesia required because the
procedure took longer and dental surgery was involved as both lower
canines were extracted, came to about $450. Looking at a break down of
the bill I did not find this to be unreasonable. Not that I enjoyed
paying it, mind you ;-)

Megan

I don't think that's unreasonable either. Our cat had the same procedure you
describe, minus the pre-anesthesia bloodwork because she's only 6. She did have
the IV catheter for fluids during surgery although she did not have anything
for post-surgery pain due to her bad reaction to the anesthesia. The
extractions were two rear molars (these are the biggest teeth the cat has, but
I don't know if they are hard to pull) and one incisor. So if she'd had a more
difficult extraction, I'd have expected a higher bill than the $240 we paid.
For comparison, our other cat had a simple cleaning with no extractions last
year, and the charge was $136.

wrote:

My cat Cassie was in for a dental last week and had 3 teeth removed. She
is older and had to have a full blood panel done before the dental. I
also chose to have a catheter during surgery. The total cost, including
bloodwork, extractions, and the extra anesthesia required because the
procedure took longer and dental surgery was involved as both lower
canines were extracted, came to about $450. Looking at a break down of
the bill I did not find this to be unreasonable. Not that I enjoyed
paying it, mind you ;-)

Megan

I don't think that's unreasonable either. Our cat had the same procedure you
describe, minus the pre-anesthesia bloodwork because she's only 6. She did have
the IV catheter for fluids during surgery although she did not have anything
for post-surgery pain due to her bad reaction to the anesthesia. The
extractions were two rear molars (these are the biggest teeth the cat has, but
I don't know if they are hard to pull) and one incisor. So if she'd had a more
difficult extraction, I'd have expected a higher bill than the $240 we paid.
For comparison, our other cat had a simple cleaning with no extractions last
year, and the charge was $136.