How to Finance Dental Care

Another friend just old me about the horrible dental work that she needs to get done.

Not only is it not pleasant, to say the least, to sit in the dentist's chair and have your teeth pulled, root canal done or go through the process of getting implants, but the costs are extraordinary! Dental work is a very big concern and financial outlay. So much so that a simple Google search of "cost of dental procedures" brings up a lot of websites dealing with this subject and I even found a dental procedure calculator.

Of the websites that I found, the following are very interesting. What do you think?

http://downloads.pennnet.com/web_dl/1281.pdf

http://www.dentalfearcentral.org/dental_plans.html

What is really interesting is that most dental work can be prevented if you take good care of your teeth to being with.

I am really lucky! My mother had us go to the dentist every 6 months for a periodic check and cleaning and my sisters and I all had braces. I guess that you can say that my mother had high awareness to the importance of dental hygiene. I am not sure if it came out of financial concerns or aesthetic concerns but, no matter the reason, we were at Dr. Fried's every 6 months like clock work.

I follow in my mother's footsteps and my kids and I go for a check up and a cleaning every 6 months. The check up is free and the cost for the cleaning is nominal. I am happy to say that my daughter and I have required very little dental work. My daughter had braced but does not have a cavity in her mouth and I, with very few cavities, have only had to replace a filling or two in the last decade.

My son, has not been as lucky. He is 11 years old and only a few baby teeth have fallen and the rest are holding strong. The dentist and orthodontist (and after seeing the x-ray) decided to pull 4 of his baby teeth to make room for his grown up teeth which are full grown and searching for a way to break out. My son, of course, complained and didn't like that four teeth had to be pulled, but all in all he was very brave and did what he had to do.

If we have not taken care now, his grown-up teeth would have found their way out somehow, and could have damaged the nerves as well as the rest of his mouth (a dentist can better explain the ramification). If it has gotten to that, my son would have needed dental surgery and most likely with general anesthesia. And the costs and the discomfort would have been extraordinary. By the way, it cost us in total 880 NIS (about $220) to have all 4 teeth pulled.

In short, brush your teeth when you wake up and before you go to sleep, floss every evening (this is something that I have to work on) and visit you dentist for a periodic check and cleaning every 6 months.

Mindy