system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: why does dental care cost so much, even in countries with universal health care?

Dental and oral health has been proven to be closely related to general wellbeing, and I would assume that dental care would be easier to provide (less intensive surgeries and overall simpler procedures) if it was cheaper and more easily available. So why does it cost so much, even in countries such as Canada and Sweden which have universal health care?

Asking because I'm shocked every time I get a bill from my dentist for a basic cleaning and check up, not to mention the costs of fillings or intense oral surgery.
gpt
In Canada Dental care is not covered by the national healthcare plan, so it's one of the few things that still requires insurance to help cover. Others include physio therapy, chiropractors, and prescription drugs.

So the question is why? Given that dental care is so important to our health why isn't it covered?

Well the answer is political. When the Canadian government was pushing in Healthcare legislation in the 50's it was an uphill battle. As beneficial as the system was going to be there was a lot of resistance and fighting between Doctors and the Government regarding how the system would work and some compromises had to be made.

Similar to the resistance to moving towards single payer in the US right now. A lot of the same arguments were being made.

Dentistry wasn't nearly as advanced or common place as it is now, back then fillings were possible but the majority of the time Dentists would merely pull out teeth. So while it was discussed as an addition it was eventually dropped. The idea being that the government would look into it later...

Moving to single payer healthcare was such a step up from what we had before that people at the time just accepted it. Dentistry really was an after thought compared to being able to get emergency surgery without paying for it.

Well decades later it still hasn't happened. No government has yet championed the addition of Dentistry to the healthcare system, so Dentistry remains in a pre-50's state where costs aren't government controlled and insurance companies still reign.

This is a case of the field has advanced a lot in 50+ years but the healthcare system hasn't caught up. Dentistry, drugs, eye wear, prosthetics, physio, massage, chiropractic care are all examples of things that could and arguably should be added to our national healthcare system. It's merely a matter of having a government that will get this done.