Dental Economics

How does the average person put some downward pressure on their family Dental Expenses? I know this is a hot topic with managed care and PPOs and employers trying to "hone to the bone" your benefits. There are some things you can do to control costs without changing dentists or sacrificing quality.

  1. Protect what you have. Wear a sports mouth guard during ALL contact sports but also consider wearing it for traditionally non-contact sports like Skateboarding, Disk Golf (Really), Racquetball, Baseball, Bump Skiing, Skating of all types and any other endeavor that could result in a blow to the mouth or chin. I have had to do rather involved restorations for injuries in each of the above sports recently. A simple "boil and bite" mouth guard from a sporting goods store or better yet a custom guard from a dentist would probably have prevented what will now involve a lifetime of treatment, monitoring, and restoration maintenance for these traumatized teeth.
  2. Having Failed 1 above, make every effort to receive full benefit of your Automobile, Accident or Medical Insurance for correction of these accidental injuries. If your employer provides dental coverage you may have to use it for this, but technically, all Auto, and most Accident and Medical Insurance covers "treatment necessitated by accidental injuries to sound natural teeth." Don't settle without considering that the effects and expenses of this kind of accident can manifest themselves many years after the accident.
  3. Practice Optimum Home Care. Brushing and Flossing are technical manual operations that can be mastered by almost anyone with the desire and good coaching. A hygienist is your best coach and these instructions are often included in your prevention visit costs if you will sit for them. Like any other fitness habit, doing it well is tedious at first and may even make you a little sore, but stick with it and reap the benefits of lower number of cavities and lower periodontal disease experience. Good dietary habits, fluoride, and other antimicrobial rinses round out excellent Home Care.
  4. Keep up with your regular dental care from an early age. For many, regular dental care was automatic until we left our parent's wing and became independent. Those regular checkups and a small filling or two seemed like no big deal until we had to pay for them ourselves. "No Pain, No Problem" is the guide many young people follow for five or ten years on his or her own. When pain finally does drive the person to the dental office or a new job offers dental insurance the needs are usually much more involved than they would have been at their onset, thus more costly to treat. Since most insurance only covers a percentage of services, and the percentage often drops on the more expensive treatments, delaying treatment until one has insurance is, in most cases, false economy.
  5. Ask your dentist for the best interval for your regular visits, and review that periodically. "Every six months" is appropriate for many but is a customary average and you may stay very healthy on an every nine or twelve months interval. On the other hand, many patients avoid periodontal disease progression by strictly following a three or four times annual cleanings. They save by not losing ground to this chronic destructive disease.
  6. Dental Insurance is usually a good deal if your employer pays all or most of the premium. Dental Insurance is usually not a good investment if they make you pay all or most of the premium. Where appropriate, appreciate the dental insurance coverage your employer provides, and ask your dentist to help to maximize your plan towards your needed care. This may involve "phasing" some needed care over several benefit years to minimize your out of pocket costs towards the eventual desired result. Avoid individual dental insurance and group supplemental dental coverage offers that cost you monthly premiums promising coverage of your co-payments. These are really pig-in-a-poke coverage that rarely return anything near the premiums you pay, and often ask you to change dentists to get any benefits at all.
  7. Expect and budget for some out-of-pocket costs for excellent dental care. Some dental plans promise "complete care" or "100% coverage" for "routine" services and guarantee huge discounts for more costly services like crowns or root canals for a ridiculously low monthly fee for a family of four. Guess what? It's a business, and they plan to pay less towards your care than you paid in premiums, and the dentists who agreed to be on the provider list plan to make a profit by seeing you or not see you at all. Sorry for my cynicism on this but I have yet to see the exception to what looks very much like "bait and switch" to me. Cash is King. Keep your cash in your pocket, and ask for any cash payment discounts available when arranging for the payment for your treatment.