<prompt> Human: Ill start by admitting I have not been a good son to my parents. My mother cares for her elderly parents and as well as my father who has advanced Alzheimers. They had to pull out his retirement and take a huge penalty. Also shes been advised to spend down most of their savings because once my father inevitably has to be placed in a home, they will take it all. That being said, I want to help my mom more and try to assist with taking care of him. She has been told 3 different things about getting dental work for my dad. Shes heard it will be 2700, 5000 and 7800 to get my fathers tooth cut out. Does anyone have any idea where to start with this? Do I contact the dentist, the insurance, a lawyer? I have no idea.  <response>: If you have a medical university around you, browse the website of the dental school - at Columbia Medical School by where I am, they offer extraordinarily discounted free services, so that their students can practice. All work is supervised by a fully licensed doctor. It also really depends on what services the dentist will perform. Simply extracting cutting out a tooth is not that difficult, but perhaps one of them included reconstructive work in their estimate. Im never shy about straight up asking my doctor why its so expensive, and what they can do for me.The alzheimers may prove a challenge. How far along is he? 