Dr. Hall,
Are there dentists, or dental schools that do work for less costs or to train students? And if so how do I apply?
Ronnie from Ohio

Ronnie,
Yes, all dental schools will provide low-cost dental care if you are willing to have the work done by students. It is very slow for a couple of reasons. The students, being new, are very slow. And then they have to wait for instructors to check their work. But you do get discounted care. You may pay half of what you would otherwise.

As an example of how slow dental schools are, in private practice, if I had a patient that needed, say, three fillings, I would do those in one appointment that might take 45 minutes. In dental school, I would have done one filling each appointment, and each appointment would be about an hour and a half.

And at a dental school you have an assurance that the care is going to meet a basic acceptable standard. You’re not going to get top-of-the-line work from students, but you’re not going to have shoddy work either, like you might get at a discount dentist.

I see on the map that you’re about an hour from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Just Google their dental school and you should find a phone number on their website for patients to call to make appointments.

But don’t ever go to a dental school for cosmetic dentistry. They are in the business of training students in the technical skills needed to fix teeth and they tend to be totally dismissive of a patient’s appearance-related concerns. You are better off, in my opinion, doing nothing at all than having a student at a dental school do any appearance-related dental work on you.

Dr. Hall

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