KEEPING YOUR COSTS DOWN AND YOUR DENTAL CARE UP!
I get questions periodically from patients who are losing their dental insurance, about to retire, or their company is changing to a closed panel PPO or HMO plan, or just concerned about saving money on dental care. I tell them we can work with them to keep dental care affordable. There are many ways we can do this. The last thing a person should do is skip their 6 month cleaning and check-up appointment. Regular exams are critical not only to saving your teeth for a lifetime, but neglecting oral health and gum disease directly affects the health of your entire body! Many recent research studies have proven a direct negative link between gum disease and other disease processes in your body. Poor oral health is a significant risk factor (like smoking) for diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, kidney disease, pregnancy problems and many other health disorders. Also, early detection of oral cancer can save your life. We can also detect blood pressure problems and many other early warning signs of diseases that show up in your oral tissues, tongue and gums. So check-ups and cleaning are the most important thing you can do if you want your teeth to last a lifetime. I see many more serious and sometimes irreversible problems in patients who have not been in our office for a long time. What could have been a simple, inexpensive solution now becomes a very expensive or "no-choice treatment. Here are some things you CAN do to help reduce dental care costs without compromising quality of care.
- Get regular preventive cleanings and check-ups as we discussed.
- Use your dental insurance benefits up to the maximum limit every year if you have unfinished or elective treatment remaining. Otherwise, your are throwing away free benefits.
- If you retire, keep up on your regular check-ups. Just like continuing hair and nail appointment, you don't want to let your teeth go because that can affect your overall health and accelerate the aging process, not to mention detract from your appearance. We give a 10% senior discount in our office.
- If your employer switches your dental insurance to a plan where you have to use their dentists, please be aware there is a law in Ohio requiring these plans to let you go out-of -network, keep your regular dentist and specialists in return for a higher co-pay. But this, in many cases, would be worth it to maintain the high quality dental care with your trusted dental team, rather than going to a clinic or new dentist with an unknown level of experience and credentials. We can help you with this out-of-network information---Ask Bonnie.
- Sometimes we can breakup your treatment so a Phase I treatment is done this year and Phase II is done later. We can do some temporary fillings to put certain teeth on hold for now that will need more extensive work later. We can also make temporary teeth for "looks, replacing them at a later date with permanent tooth replacements.
- Several financing options are available in our office including "interest free financing through Care Credit and other financing companies for balances $300 and up, as well as credit card acceptance and a discount for payment at the time of service.
Together, we can work with you to keep your expenses down while maintaining high quality dental care with optimal health as our goal. Just ask us!
THE LATEST ON SOFT DRINKS
The consumption of soft drinks is at an all time high and has become a major dental health problem. We see rampant decay with patients who consume soft drinks on a regular basis. Not only is the sugar a problem but all soft drinks contain high levels of acid, especially Phosphoric and Citric acid which dissolve tooth enamel. A 12 ounce can contains 10 teaspoons of sugar while a 20 ounce bottle has 17 TEASPOONS OF SUGAR! And 250 Calories. While avoiding soft drinks is our goal, here are some things you can do to lessen the damage:
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After drinking a soft drink, brush your teeth or at least rinse your mouth with water to dilute the sugar and acid.
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Drink from a straw to reduce the effect on your teeth.
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Avoid sipping for long periods of time or all day. The longer the time the teeth are exposed to acid and sugar, the more decay.
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Chew sugarless gum. Chewing gum stimulates saliva flow which helps wash away the damaging acid and sugar bath.
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Remember, you only get one set of permanent teeth. If you destroy those, the next set has to be taken out at night and put in a jar!
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