I posted a few prior times about a problem tooth (second bicuspid)
that was sensitive and painful on and off over the past 60 days.  It
was filled once 17 years ago, then refilled 6 weeks ago to see if that
would solve the problem.  It didn't.  So, I went to an endodontist
today to get a root canal.  After getting numbed, I was in the chair
with him drilling and rasping for at least 30 minutes.  He then put in
a temp filling and I'll be going back at least 2 or three more times
to have the root canal completed.  He estimated today that he was only
15 - 20 % done!  His bill is going to be $1295.  Now, this happens to
be a difficult case with a complicated root structure: there are two
or three root canals that are intertwined (as seen on the xray, but he
couldn't be sure without going in and looking).  And he seemed to be
busy the whole time, diligently drilling and rasping, and not dilly-
dallying at all from what I could tell.

My questions are: what do the dentists here think about this?  Is how
this is going so far a sign of competence or incompetence?  What about
the price?  $1295 seems steep to me, but I have nothing to compare it
with.  I'm on Long Island, NY, so that probably contributes.  I'm
pretty sure this is well over the "reasonable and customary" fees that
my dental plan will pay 70% of.

Of course, my know-it-all coworker says all the root canals he's had
done took only one visit and he was never billed more than $700 per.
His guy usually had 3 or 4 patients going at the same time, perhaps
indicating efficiency of operation and probable competence.  In
contrast, I was the only patient I saw during the time I was there.

At this point, I'm almost sorry I didn't just opt to have the tooth
pulled, or wait it out for a few more months to see if the cyclical
pain (some days good, some bad) eventually goes away, but neither this
endodontist nor my regular dentist were confident it would.