<prompt> Human: There are multiple responses that apply to this post. I realize I am 2 years past the original post but when reading through the comments I feel compelled to reply. 1st ... a few people in the industry have suggested you should have had a pre-authorization or a pre-determination .. sure thats a valid suggestion BUT the 1st thing the insurance company will tell you when you call them is Nothing is a guarantee of payment until the claim is received for payment ... no truer words have ever been spoken .. even if you send in for pre-approval to your insurance company and they and they send you back in written form a paper approval showing they said yes they will agree to pay ... look closely to the fine print at the bottom because it says it is NOT a guarantee .. the insurance still reserves the right to deny your claim.. side note I know this because I worked for 3 of the well-known dental insurances within my career ... so that option while again is a valid suggestion can also lead to a non-payment of your claim.. 2nd .. the dental office does their best to advocate on your behalf, however in addition to seeing you as a patient they also see hundreds even thousands of other patients in a weeks time .. so when they print out a piece of paper stating this is what they ESTIMATE the insurance to pay than again it is merely an estimation ... and in todays world all dental software is equipped to state the estimation wording .. its pre-programmed into the software so even if the office forgets to add the disclaimer it should already be there ... but again this falls back to the nothing is a guarantee of payment until the claim is received ..3rd .. if your dentist decides to participate with the insurance company it is entirely different than simply accepting your insurance .. the difference ?! .. its more indepth than this but to give a jist of it ... participate he can not balance bill you for a covered and paid dental service agreed to by your dentist and the insurance company .. accept he will send your claim to the insurance for you but he CAN balance bill you what the insurance does not pay ... that being said let me give you an example .. a participating dentist wants to charge 2000 for a crown but Delta Dental says you are only permitted to charge 1000 per your contracted fee within our agreement ... if your lucky your insurance will pay 500 and your charged 500 ... the remaining 1000 is written off in a participating agreement .. so the dentist just lost 1000 .. that translates to you get a job paying you 20 an hour but because you are trying to do a favor for the people you might run into at work a favor you will accept only 10 an hour ... of course you would never do that because that in itself is ludicrous right ?! but when they shoe is on the other foot it translates into money owed the dentist than by all means that theoretical favor should be upheld .. moving on .. an accepting dentist wants to charge 2000 for a crown but Delta Dental will only allow 1000 per the other dentists in the areas contracted fee ... again if your lucky your insurance will pay 500 but this time the remaining 1000 is NOT written off in a participating agreement so the dentist can now charge you the balance not paid by the insurance which would be 1500 .. most dental offices will simply answer yes to your question when you call and say do you take my insurance .. because the short answer is yes they do ... and I will openly admit even I find this to be deceiving because they know darn well they should follow up with but we do not participate .. 4th .. as if the above is not enough lets ad one more complication shall we ... there are many types of crowns .. what they call porcelain fused to metal crowns .. full metal crowns .. gold crowns .. all porcelain crowns just to name a few .. 75 of the time the insurance will downgrade a crown to something they are willing to allow or accept .. 99 of dentists utilize the all porcelain crowns for various reasons but the insurance will only pay for the porcelain fused to metal crown which regardless of the dentists participating status he can balance bill the difference of that fee to the insurance did not pay to the patient .. which typically accounts for a few hundred dollars .. 5th .. and lastly since Ive already gone on further than I intended too ... when you go to a dental office and you are being told that you require major work to be done .. self advocate .. ALWAYS ! we as a community have become reliant on other people do to what we ourselves should be doing .. something no one likes to hear if the dental office does you a favor by verifying your insurance .. the dental office does you a favor by calling on your behalf to appeal claims and submit additional information ... simply put the dental office is doing you a favor .. so instead of placing fault on the dentist for estimating your out of pocket .. call the insurance and find out what the deal is ... oh and before it is asked ... no I am NOT a dentist .. I have just been in the industry for long enough to know a thing or two :  <response>: This is far too painful.. to read... What is with all the .. ... ... in this post!? .. An ellipses is exactly 3 dots ... and its not being used correctly here...This reads like.. stream of consciousness... cant even understand whether this is a question... or information for others .. 