To be fair, dentists do engage in what really looks like price fixing (at least where I am, and to an outside eye). Every dentist here charges the exact same amount, regardless of whether they’re in the middle of a high-income metropolitan area or in bumkinville.
Also every once in a while you see some real horror stories of dentists doing unnecessary procedures on sedated patients, and although the extreme cases are absolutely the exception, I always do have to wonder if I actually need the (often expensive) treatments they recommend.
In the UK it is price fixed... By the NHS centrally. (Private practices exist too.)
Iirc, a check-up is £22, incl. anything relatively standard they need to do (cleaning, sealing, I think even the cheap non-white or whatever fillings, etc.). Certainly not an amount to be annoyed at the lack of reduction through competition.
>Every dentist here charges the exact same amount, regardless of whether they’re in the middle of a high-income metropolitan area or in bumkinville
In the USA? If so, that's probably moreso a result of the reimbursement structures imposed by dental insurance companies, rather than active collusion among dentists.
Also every once in a while you see some real horror stories of dentists doing unnecessary procedures on sedated patients, and although the extreme cases are absolutely the exception, I always do have to wonder if I actually need the (often expensive) treatments they recommend.