Visiting The Dentist – Daily Tip

Over half of Americans visit the dentist once every 6 months according to the American Dental Association and many see the “go to the dentist twice a year” mantra as designed in stone. This mantra, however, arises from a comic book written over 150 years back titled The Toothache - a period when dental care wasn't even close to today’s standards. Therefore the question is do you really need to visit your dentist that usually for check-ups? According to a report at Smart Money, you might not:

“A six-month checkup means everybody has exactly the same risk for disease, which doesn’t make very much sense,” says Douglas Benn, oral and maxillofacial radiologist and professor emeritus in the University of Florida. “If you appear at the typical middle-class population, nearly all are not at high risk for lots of decay and gums and teeth; they probably don’t need to be seen every 6 months.” A number of studies support Benn’s view, finding no appreciable take advantage of biannual visits for all patients.“

For those who have full dental insurance that already will pay for visits to the dentist every 6 months, then it makes sense to continue to obtain your twice a year check-up. If you have regular dental problems, additionally, it makes sense to continue to go a minimum of every six months. If, however, you receive glowing marks every time you begin to see the dentist and take wonderful proper care of your teeth and gums by yourself, then it makes sense to a minimum of discuss with your dentist how frequently you need to come in for a check-up. This is also true if you have a large dental deductible, co-pay or don’t have dental insurance at all (only 55% of usa citizens do have dental insurance).

Be honest together with your dentist and explain the problem that you are paying a lot of the money for treatment and check-ups from your own pocket. If you have a bad risk factor for dental disease and want to see the dentist every 6 months, they will let you know and you should follow their advice. Attempting to save money by not getting regular check-ups means much more money in dental work in the future. If you are a low risk candidate for dental disease, however, you might be surprised that your dentist says arriving every 9 months or each year for a check-up is acceptable.

Another benefit of discussing this together with your dentist is even if you do need to continue the current six month check-up, you might receive a discount over the regular priced treatments. Many dentists tend to be more than happy to offer a discount of 10% or even more to patients that purchase their dental care up-front so the dentist doesn’t suffer from an insurance company. Many also offer lower rates to people paying for care out of their own pocket. It doesn’t hurt to inquire about and you may find that you don’t need to spend around you have been at the dentist.