Dentures and implants are more about <i>functioning</i> teeth than &quot;perfect&quot; teeth. Poor folks can live with unsightly teeth but they can&#x27;t subsist entirely on jello. Patients with unlimited dental budgets will be aggressively sold on root canals and veneers by every dentist they see. Most dentists don&#x27;t want to make dentures or place implants, so they price themselves out of that market.<p>However, some dentists make inexpensive dentures, and poor patients will drive hundreds of miles to see those dentists. Because such dentists make 20x as many dentures as their higher-priced colleagues, they&#x27;re much better at it. In this case price is <i>negatively</i> correlated with quality. The implant market isn&#x27;t quite like that <i>yet</i>, but it&#x27;s going in that direction.