No cure, toothache; cure, flesh pain! Only by increasing localization can we break the price ice

"No cure, toothache; cure, flesh hurt!" This is the voice of many current dental patients. According to media reports, at present, some oral restoration projects are expensive, especially dental implants, and the average cost of a treatment ranges from 6,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan. Some elderly people have to spend two or three hundred thousand yuan to change a good mouth. As a result, many patients are less than a last resort, preferring to drag and endure rather than treat.

Why is it so expensive to change teeth? There is a superposition of forming costs and hidden costs. As the core material in the treatment, the artificial tooth root must have both firmness and comfort, usually the pure titanium metal used is expensive, and the "body value" of consumable medical equipment such as the filming machine and the tooth chair necessary for treatment is also as high as tens of thousands of yuan and hundreds of thousands of yuan. In addition to the basic cost, looking at the entire dental market, various private clinics and chain institutions occupy half of the country, and many companies have invested a lot of money in advertising and marketing, and this part of the cost is ultimately borne by patients.

In the face of the high price of teething, some people have proposed that they should be allowed to enter medical insurance, is this feasible? First of all, it should be clear that restoration projects such as tooth extraction and filling have been included in the "reimbursement", and some regions have also begun to plan to adjust the overall medical insurance payment standards for oral implant projects, which can be said to have taken a solid step towards "universal benefit". However, it should also be noted that the functional positioning of medical insurance is "basic insurance", and dental implants are not the only choice for the restoration of missing teeth, so in most countries they are self-funded projects. As for the way to exchange "collection" for "low price", in fact, there is also a premise implied, that is, how much "bargaining" we have. Take coronary stents, an important reason why the price of imported stents "dived" is that domestic stents have begun to rise and play a leading role in this field. In contrast, the development of dentistry in China started late, most of the high-end oral medical equipment and consumables have not yet achieved localization, and 90% of dental products need to rely on imports. In such a context, the price may be difficult to negotiate, and the time to let dental implants enter medical insurance is not yet mature.

A small tooth is related to the people's livelihood. Although it is difficult to achieve a sharp price reduction in the short term, it is the mission of the relevant departments to let the people see it at ease and be affordable. From the current point of view, it is necessary to strengthen supervision, further regulate dental implants and even the entire dental market, and realize the openness and transparency of the circulation and sales of oral drugs and medical devices. In the long run, it is necessary to guide relevant enterprises to increase their independent research and development capabilities and continuously promote the localization of medical devices. Technology comes up, there are more talents, in order to squeeze out unnecessary water, break the price "ice".

Image from Visual China

Source Beijing Daily Client | Commentator Off the end

Edited by Cui Wenjia

Process Editor Wu Yue