Budgeting Dental Care

In a couple of past blogs we talked about dental insurance. Most people will have some financial responsibility for dental care even when they have dental insurance. Much of dental insurance applies to preventative care. As one of our more comedic associates used to tell her kids, “You can get a lot of professional dental cleanings for the price of one root canal!”

While this wry and a bit off-the-wall thinking is correct, it brings budgeting of dental care into the forefront of our thinking as we get down to the brass tacks of dental care and making it affordable.

More is better

Prevention, we mean.

Good care habits

If dental care is a chess game, brushing and flossing are like the pawns. You can’t play without the pawns to protect your game, even though they appear to be of little consequence.

Each factor of dental care is like a different piece on the board. There are regular exams, but X-rays show more. Professional cleanings are another essential piece, too. Even eating right is a good move. The biggest factor? Wise use of the pieces, and making regular moves!

But as over 75 million Americans have no dental insurance at all, that leaves them responsible for the entire dental bill. It can take a bite out of the budget!

So what is the answer?

Prevention

Prevention is the best solution. People who think that if they don’t have dental insurance, they shouldn’t bother going to the dentist need to understand something about having dental coverage. Dental insurance is capped off at a specific dollar amount, as we said in our last blog, so it doesn’t cover the big stuff anyway.

So the secret to avoiding big problems is to keep them small, that is, to take care of problems when they’re little so they never get big.

Economic foresight

Remember the guy who took payments for orthodontia work? Suddenly he was crazy busy? Instead of putting dental care on your credit card bill, you can make regular payments into a private savings account to help cover the cost of dental expenses you know you may have in the future.

Above all, don’t wait to get dental care, especially if you’re having a problem or think you’re having a problem. Remember! It’s easier to stop a problem when it’s small than wait for it to do more damage. While a dental bill might be a hardship, losing any of your teeth is a worse hardship.

Taking care of yourself is more important now than ever before. Regular dental care is one of the very best things you can do for your general health. We are proud to be a part of that.

If you need a gentle, caring dental team, please call our office at (623) 362-2550. We’ll give you the very best dental care we can!