There's a new orthodontist at my dentist's office in ZH. I went to see him for 5mins, he took a cursory look at my teeth and said they were fine and handed me the next set of Invisaligns (which I'd already paid for with the previous ortho). For the five minutes, his bill was 500chf. He didn't do anything to my teeth. Is this normal/ethical? I feel as though I'm being shafted. Hard.

Ask him for a breakdown of the costs.

Sounds like you could be Im afraid.
Have you paid already? If so, what method?

Ask for a breakdown, otherwise...

who's the black private dick who is the sex machine with all the chicks?

No I haven't paid it yet! The ortho wasn't in the office so I asked the dentist to explain the breakdown of the bill. He said he couldn't because it was in ortho lingo, and that they would 'get back' to me!

Unless his name was Dr George Clooney I'd say you must certainly have cause to complain!

Was your visit by appointment, or did you just turn up unexpected. If the latter, you were probably charged as an 'emergency visit' which may have a fixed minimum cost. Otherwise, yes you need a breakdown. By law they have to itemise each element and each one has a number of 'tax points'. The tax points are added up, then multiplied by the Dentists fee rate (which I believe he can set to any level - this is what you should check at the start).

I did the invisalign treatment as well - for about a year and was shocked at their bills. CHF 500 per visit sounds about right. But when you check out the quote - I hope you did get a quote - then you will see it all adds up to what they originally forecast.
For me it was worth it - avoiding braces and not looking like a nerd.

Either way you should get the breakdown from your dentist or insist with this guy you saw last time.

I had to move Cantons before my treatment was over and found another dentist to finish it - so if you're not happy you can always ask for all your invisalign sets and move to another dentist in Swiss who does this treatment.

Yes you are being shafted, there is a list of dental/orthodontology charges and it shows a "taxpunktzahl" (PP). For a checkup and diagnosis it should be between 25-34 PP, you then have to find out the "Taxpunktwert" for the orthodontologist you visited, I heard the maximum allowed here is CHf 5.80. The 2 multiplied together should be the total cost which should make it a max. of CHf 197.20
The detailed bill will show exactly how many PP he is asking for for each detail of your visit.
If he only took a look and didn't actually give you any treatment then the cost should only be that for the checkup, the diagnosis was "everything is ok"...... Ask your dentist for their Tarif list and see how many PP is listed for the checkup. Also ask for the Taxpunktwert of the Orthodontologist.

If you understand German Goddess go to www.sso.ch they set the maximum costs for all dental treatment here.

Thanks guys for the help and info. I feel a lot better after reading your replies. I hope it won't come to a point where I'll have to name and shame those involved!

Why don't you drive to Germany for a course of treatment?