guess it depends a lot on where the practice is and how good a job they do on dentals. My wife is a dental tech at a pretty upscale practice in Encino California and $2000 for a full dental with multiple extractions is not unheard of. $1000 for a dental would be pretty typical. Getting a dental at her work for under $650 would literally be impossible. They do a LOT of dentals, though and have a very good reputation (my wife is anal about doing a perfect job). On your estimate I see things missing that would be on one of her dentals: after extractions, they close all defects so a gingival flap would be charged per extraction ($50). Extraction of a molar would be $80, not $40. They have a super high tech monitoring machine that is constantly monitoring blood pressure, end tidal CO2, temperature, heart rate, respiration, pulse Ox and ecg... so they also charge $70 for anesthetic monitoring equipment. Preanesthetic blood work is minimum $100, but can up to $200 if patients are old or infirm; you left out antibiotic injection, and preop x-rays for any older patients or ones with heart murmurs; analgesia is divided into preop, post op and during op (local anesthetic nerve blocks)- these are non-negotiable, but no one turns down pain meds... anyway, you can see how costs can go up much higher than what you have there. It's perceived as well as real costs, too... many of her clients go to that practice because it is expensive, knowing (and in this case they may right) they are going to get the best job done just about anywhere. Only the dental specialists would cost more, and in some instances, they are comparable. We have multiple dental specialists in the area and they are super busy as well. Average dental by one of them is $1500.

I have had and am now having major dental work. The dentist that I went to for years and really liked retired about 7 years ago. I was switched to another dentist who practiced in the same office. I have had some major work done by this dentist and almost every time I leave his office, I am black and blue and in severe pain. One time I ended up with over $800 in medical bills. The dentist gave me a hematoma which ended up getting infected, I had major swelling of my glands and a lot of pain. I went to a medical doctor and got penicillin and they referred me to a cardiologist who did an echocardiogram. I have a heart murmur and have to take antibiotics before having any work done on my teeth. Because of the severe infection, I was referred to a cardiologist to make sure no damage had been done. I am now having a bridge replaced and had a tooth pulled this week. I am having problems and the dentist looked at it again today and said I have a severe bruise on my gum and it is swollen but it should heal without further antibiotics. Last summer I had a crown done on a molar and ended up with two weeks of severe pain and had to exist on a pain reliever. My point in all of this is that I have always been afraid to go to a dental school and have students working on me since I have had so many problems with an experienced dentist working on me. If he can't do it without me ending up in severe pain and bruises, hematomas, and other problems, would a student do a better job?

I just had a similar procedure. I broke off tooth #6 near the gum line. My regular dentist spoke about 3 options and the one she was said that had the best outcome was the most expensive, an implant. A friend of mine who is a dentist spied my broken tooth and said that he could fix the tooth at much lower cost. He recommended a root canal, post, and crown. A noble metal post (titanium) provides support to securely hold the crown; A root canal is needed for installation of the post and that is was what I chose. It has worked well. I have had several root canals and after the initial work, there may be some soreness in the connective tissue that holds the tooth, but that should subside in a couple of weeks. When tenderness persists, the tooth socket maybe infected or the bottom of the tooth was not well sealed after the root canal and permits a pocket for infection. Over a year ago, I had a root canal and cap and that one did remain tender for several months, but slowly improved until the tenderness went away. It never ached. If your tooth is aching, suspect infection in the surrounding tissue. After a root canal, there are no nerves left in the tooth. Any pain you feel is from nerves outside the tooth.

Well, go ahead and shoot me now, but I trust Purina where nutrition is concerned. I will admit I trusted it more when it was a St Louis, family owned company, pre-Nestle. But they do have a huge staff of veterinary nutritionists whom they work with very closely to develop nutritionally sound foods. These people have a minimum of an additional 3 years of training after veterinary school. They KNOW nutrition! I cannot imagine any company in today's "bottom line" world that would spend money on such things and then not follow them. Purina also manufacturers all but one of its products - it may do that now, too, as it was the only one that had problems when all the other dog food companies were in big trouble. I've fed PurinaOne Lamb & Rice since it was introduced nearly 20 years ago. My dogs have wonderful coats, clear eyes, good skin, small poops, and are just overall very healthy animals, thriving on this food. Why on earth would I change what I feed? A breeder friend told me about 25 years ago that she changed foods anytime she had a problem in her breeding program, hoping it would "fix" the problem. Of course, she did minimum testing which is probably why she had problems, but she was an old-fashioned breeder who believed purebred dog breeding was an "art", not a "science". In fact, it's BOTH!