Dental question - Preventative vs. Perio Scaling

[Monaco]

Hello, I hope some dental students can help me out. The insurance company is closed, as well as the dental office. I want to be somewhat educated when I call both on Monday.

 

Went to a new dentist. He billed me for PERIO SCALING 4U (insurance code 11114). Needless to say, I'm not happy since this is a lot more expensive than my old dentist who usually charged me for PREVENTATIVE SCALING (11111), not sure about the units, but probably just 1U.

 

According to my insurance website, the difference between perio and preventative scaling *may* just be the units of time billed. However, I don't feel this new dentist did 4x the amount of scaling (in terms of time) when compared to my old dentist.

 

My insurance covers preventative procedures, but not periodontal services. I'm a little suspicious of this new dentist since my insurance also got claims for services which I know I did not receive. Must talk to the dental office on Monday. Anyways....

 

What is the difference between preventative vs. perio scaling? And how can I tell which one I received?

 

P.S.> Feel free to direct me to professional dental forums if this kind of question is not appropriate on this forum. I know you are just students, so you might not have had to deal with office/insurance/billing stuff yet. Thanks.

[Goldenboy6]

I do not know the answer to your question but I hate hearing about this kind of stuff happening. Just recently I found out that an old aquaintance of my father, who was a dentist in New York lost his license because he was apparently charging for services he did not perform onto people's insurance. I mean being a dentist is supposed to be a career choice that is very financially secure so I just can't understand why its necessary to do such actions. I hope its not a case where they have trouble paying back all their student loans as I will probably need the maximum allowable loan in order to get through dental school (that's hopefully if I get in).

 

Oh, and by the way, Monaco, I forgot this, but you should check out http://www.studentdoctor.net, and go to the dentistry forums. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to get an answer there if you don't get one here.