Okay, this is not so much a rant as an eye opening awaking to the current dilemma that affects nearly everybody that ever has to go to the dentist for a treatment: its freaking really expensive for dental care these days, and the balance is due for services rendered at the time of treatment – no easy pay plans, no forwarding the balance, you pay for what you get then, and there! So how can anybody realistically afford decent dental care when it costs so much for everything?
Dental Insurance has not Meet the Rising Costs of Dental Care
Most people think, hey I have dental insurance, so everything will be okay, right? Not exactly folks. The dental insurance companies only cover part. Usually half to sixty percent of all treatments, the rest is out of your pocket. So a root canal and crown will cost the average insured patient around $600 smackers. Who can really afford braces then, crowns and so on? And, recent studies have concluded that dental insurance has not met the rising demands of the cost of dental care. Read more
If you have ever been to my dentist’s office than you would already know that they do everything in their power of minimize the amount of pain that you feel during any dental procedure. But my dentist uses a few other tricks that I had never heard of before my first appointment at his office. Not knowing that my dentist wrote a best-selling book on pain management, I learned a thing or two when at his office on that fateful day. He used the art of distraction to make me not think about the series of shots that he was about to administer into my tender gums. By distracting me mentally I thought about it less.
Many people, myself included, dread any sort of trip to the dentist. When it comes to wisdom tooth extraction surgeries, it can be really easy to put the entire experience on hold. But when it needs to finally be done, the more that you are in the know about the surgery the better prepared you can be. Here is what you should expect when getting a wisdom tooth extraction surgery, and how you can be best prepared for it and know what to expect.
Are you still brushing your teeth using an old fashioned and obsolete toothbrush? If so, let me enlighten you to the next great thing in oral hygiene: the supersonic toothbrush. In a nutshell, this is an electronic toothbrush that has a powerful motor contained within. It is able to rotate the brush bristles and near supersonic speeds, which makes for a super clean mouth every time. The best part, perhaps, is that these newer sonic toothbrushes have been proven to be way more effective than the older, hand operated toothbrushes. And, they are going down in price—making them an affordable necessity for all of those out there who want to stave off costly and time consuming, and quite often painful, trips to the dentist.
I am most certain that we have all had our fair share of dental nightmares that we can easily share with others, and here is the low down on one of mine. I was about fifteen years old at the time and had been saving up my money from a part time job that I was working so I could go on a Mexican Coastal vacation and learning tour with my classmates – a two week excursion to some amazing places in Mexico, including three serene days in Cancun. Of course, little did I realize that a molar in the back of my mouth would entirely ruin my experience and send me home on an emergency flight, leaving me hospitalized for several weeks. So without ado, here is what happened.
The dental office – an expensive yet necessary part of life, that for many people means a certain amount of pain to get the treatments that they so desire, while maintaining proper oral health. And did I mention that dental treatments can be really expensive? I mean lavishly costly? So I find myself once again in the seat at the dental office, getting a routine oral checkup and exam. Of course my dentist uses the latest and greatest equipment (remind me to thank him for doing away with those horrid bite wing x-rays in favor of an external and easy machine), when my dentist informs me that they will be taking free pictures of my mouth so they can show me ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos should I want to pursue getting cosmetic dental veneers applied to my teeth. That was all nice and dandy, and boy did the ‘after’ photo look rock star, super model awesome!
