Routine dental X-rays are not backed by evidence

> "Financial aspects of dental radiography also deserve further study," Feit added

No joke. That is a major money maker. There is minimal cost per-use and your insurance pays $200 for it (my last one was $186.00 for instance). The dentists would be crazy not to recommend them as of often as possible.

Fluoride "rinses" are likely up there too. Rinse for a few seconds and they charge the insurance $50 or something for it.

Those prices are absurd. My whole annual check up including a digital X-ray, visual inspection, tartar removal, polishing, costs less than that.

And that is in high cost Norway.

How much did it cost?

If _much_ lower than 200 USD per visit in a very wealthy country, then I assume:

(a) dentists don't make very much money. Less than 100K USD?

(b) most of the work is done by poorly paid dental assistants (20 USD per hour or less).

Running a high quality dental clinic is expensive, both for equipment and staff. How can it be so cheap in Norway?

It's pretty similar in the UK for private dentistry, x-rays ~£10-30, hygienist/scale/polish ~£50-120, filling ~£70-150, root canal/extraction ~£120-300.

Dentist salaries seem to range between £70-200k depending on experience, specialty, etc.

Bone graft and implant for a single tooth can be up to £9K...

For sure, stuff like implants, cosmetic dentistry, braces, crowns etc. still cost a non-trivial amount (though hopefully most are once in a lifetime things).