And yet dental insurance is de-linked from standard health insurance.

I am not sure why you are downvoted. This is absolutely a MAJOR fucking problem in the US. I work with strong men and women that almost all have dental issues. We have "amazing" insurance as professional firefighters in most jurisdictions.

Dental insurance is an absolute scam. Dental coverage in the USA is beyond abysmal. I am very fortunate (or unfortunate depending on perspective) to live close enough to Mexico to investigate the prices there.

I recently had three, previously crowned, teeth removed and the posts for implants placed. The least expensive I could find in my city of 1 million was $16k out the door. I drove to the Mexico border, walked across and paid $3350 for the implants and they replaced a broken crown. I still need to heal completely before they place the arches (the new teeth) and they are going to charge me $2250 for those.

WTH? Its not like they are using TEMU veneers and implants. Its the same stuff, I could pick between zirconia and porcelain. Same machines, same tools, same training. And as a bonus, the dentists and staff were some of the most caring and thoughtful "dental people" as I suffer from "dental anxiety" like no other.

I think a lot of dental anxiety stems from the cost. Furthermore, the fact that we can't really tell what is going on in our mouths like a strange growth on your face or something, means we have to implicitly trust the dentist. Is a $2000 crown really necessary? We have no real way to actually hold a dentist or their practices accountable. There is just too much friction built into the dental system for a normie to really know what is needed versus the dentist needs to pay off a $15000 bicycle so everyone is getting crowns for a month. lol