<prompt> Human: TL;DR at the bottom26 yo working in the financial end of the real estate industry. My dentist died my senior year of college, spring 2012. So 2.5 years since my last visit. In that amount of time I was either super busy stressed, or I did not have dental insurance. I finally received it this year, and just in time since a filling broke about 2 months ago and the pain is just now getting to be a little much to live with. So I scheduled an appointment for my local office and went this morning. I always make these stories too long, so Ill do bullet points:- I was totally expecting to spend a lot of money. Im not great about flossing, drink too many fountain drinks, etc..- Ive got a credit card 0 balance, 1500 limit, 0 apr next 18 months, an HSA 425, and some money set aside.- Never had a dental bill mailed to me or knew much about it. Last time and all the times before that it was with parents insurance, and they were sent the bills.- All I really want is to fix my problem tooth filling fell out due to decay, and a routine cleaning. I am in the middle of my 2015 get-healthy-again mission.- So Im getting myself psyched up, based off numbers I came up with from others experiences. I say to myself Hopefully this stays less than 1000. But I will not be surprised if it gets closer to 3000. Ill have to take a step back and think about things if it gets close to 5,000- New patient paperwork. Have to read a disclosure that basically says Were not in the business of saving you money or being cheap. We will always offer the best course of care for dental health, regardless of budget, insurance, etc. - Tech does her cleaning pictures and gets me ready for the dentist. He shows up looks at my mouth. Steps back and has this hurts me to ask this more than it hurts you look on his face... while fidgeting with his Rolex... and says So do you want to keep your teeth? Yes, Im 26 years old and shallow... Of course I want my teeth.- He says Ok, youre looking at maybe 30-40,000 of work. THAT IS 4 ZEROs. Honestly between being shocked, but also trying to save face, I dont remember exactly the conversation that followed. Of course, he did not do any more work, but instead vaguely went over his 3 year plan for me.- Then he gave me his own personal version of the disclosure I read in the office saying, I am quoting you this now... But once the work starts, then things change, and it could actually be a little more expensive than what were talking about. Well, they give all their patients a printed proposed treatment plan. Even though this document is not comprehensible to any non-dentist, I was able to find the grand total of all the proposed treatments at about 22,000. Still waaay more than what I was expecting an hour ago, but 8,000 cheaper than the lower end of his verbal quote? - This proposed treatment plan does not make any sense to me. He asked me straight up Do you want to keep your teeth? Then I see here that hes got about 4500 worth of what is basically stain-removals. White spots, barely noticeable, from braces when I was a kid. Dont need that, didnt ask for it, and theyre not going to make my teeth fall out of my mouth anytime soon. And they wont do ANY of their proposed work until I first get another extra-special cleaning to the tune of 1200. - At the end of all this, Im just picturing what a person who needs 30k in dental work looks like. I do not have brown or missing teeth. I have one sore tooth, which is why I visited in the first place, but besides that I dont ever get tooth aches. Even with hotcold. If you wanted to be a dick and make fun of my appearance, you would probably hit on 20 other parts of my body before youd say anything about teeth.Questions1. Your general input on my situation? Yes, I know I got myself here in the first place by not being preventative enough. 2. Are all dentists like this? After my visit I read some reviews, and read several versions of stories very close to mine and worse example: Recommending crowns to a 4 year old? Why?.3. Is getting a second opinion from different dentists a thing? 4. Is it wrong for me to just want to fix the minimums right now aka keep my teeth from falling out apparently, and then worry about the more cosmetic touches in the future when it makes more financial sense? By the way, I couldnt really discuss that question with the dentist because he said ethically he cant give anything else than what he thinks is the best treatment!5. So lets say I do need to pay him 30,000 over the next few years or my teeth really will fall out. Whats the best way to do that if I cannot pay cash? Care credit? TL;DR: Went to the dentist after 2 years expecting some minor work, and prepared to spend 5 or so thousand if absolutely necessary. Dentist quoted me around 30 thousand. Dont want to lose teeth. Pretty sure dentist is major asshole, and recommending I get overpriced or un-necesary treatments.  <response>: My mother is a dentist, and while I dont share her expertise I am pretty decent educated. This sounds very much like a scam. Get a second opinion, ideally from a smaller locally owned office. 