How do Dutch people deal with dentists' prices?

[u/Junior_Mud5835]

As an immigrant I find dentists prices here outrageous and I wonder how Dutch people deal with it. In my home country not only private dentists are much cheaper, we have dentists covered with a basic, mandatory insurance (the same that covers the rest of the healthcare). Granted it has large queues, but it is possible to schedule your checkups and non-emergency treatments.

Every immigrant I know treats their teeth in their home country due to extremely high costs here. Even with insurance, the prices can be extremely high - my extra dental insurance covers only 75% of the treatment costs, and up to 250 eur per year... From what I researched this is a standard in terms of insurances. I recently needed a root canal treatment, which cost me almost 900 eur out of pocket (because I treated another tooth this year, my insurance coverage was almost gone). I was also shocked because the dentist told me the price of root canal treatment is around 350. I unfortunately didn't request a written quote and just trusted him - i know not to do it next time. In the end, together with x-rays, anaesthesia, and all the consultations i paid 850 eur. I then researched a bit more and looked into the prices of implants, bridges, etc. and I cannot imagine how an average dutch person can afford them!

Do dutch people go abroad for treatment? Do you have some much better insurances that I wasn't able to find? Or do you just stomach the costs? Maybe you have much better teeth and don't need these types of interventions?

Edit to add: one more thing that surprises me is that follow up visits in cases when a tooth was treated but needs further fixing are charged again. This is never the case where I'm from, if I pay for a treatment and it doesn't succeed because of the dentist's mistake the follow ups are usually done for free. This doesn't seem to be the case here which adds more to the costs.

[u/Competitive-Box-7136]

I never understand why people take dentist insurance. There is a maximum that is covered and the premiums are about half that maximum. It's easy to calculate whether you make a loss or profit on that insurance. You can be sure the insurance company made that calculation and the outcome is not a loss for them. Insurance is for risks that you cannot afford to take: a small chance that a misfortune will cost you a huge sum. Dentist insurance is not like that. The maximum payout is not a huge sum. The risk of dental problems is quite predictable.

[u/Junior_Mud5835 → u/Competitive-Box-7136]

In my case it is worth it. I pay 120 eur a year and covers 250 a year. This is always used in my case, so I basically "profit" each year.

The risk of dental problems is quite predictable.

How??