Question:

I have a tooth gap between my two front teeth. I want to fix the gap but don't want to get braces. I just heard about tooth bonding and was wondering if you could tell me how much would that cost, is it probable that my dental insurance will pay for at least part of the procedure?

Answer:

The cost of direct tooth bonding varies a great deal from one cosmetic dentist to another. Our survey of cosmetic dentistry costs in December 2005 showed a range of from $300 to $1600 per tooth for the type of bonding you'd need. And they're reluctant to quote fees over the phone, without seeing what your case really involves, but you can try. Some of them offer a free first visit to ask questions and get acquainted with the office, so you might see if they do that, and then they could give you a ballpark estimate.

It's not probable, but possible that your dental insurance would help pay for this, because it's cosmetic work which almost all of them exclude. Here's what you need to do to get dental insurance to help cover this:

If your dental insurance covers braces for adults, you can often get them to cover this if you handle them right. What you do is you get the dentist to submit a pre-treatment estimate for the full orthodontic treatment to fix this problem. If they approve that, then you have the dentist write a new estimate for the bonding, explaining that you two talked it over, and you feel you could save money by doing the bonding. When the dental insurance looks at it as an option between paying for the braces, which they've already agreed to do, and paying for the bonding, they will usually say, OK, go ahead and do the bonding and we will cover it. But you need to do it in that way.

But go to an expert cosmetic dentist for this. Over 90% of those who claim to be cosmetic dentists don't have the training or skills to pull this off and get it to look nice.