Don’t Cut Corners On Dental Care!

Trying to save money by reducing dental visits can lead to poor oral health

Over the next few years, we are likely to hear a lot about possible recessions and various other risks that may result from the current geo-political situation. There may be other things around the corner that we are currently aware of too, but the fact is that any type of economic downturn means that many people will look for ways of saving a few pounds here and there.

When or if this happens, people generally look to make financial savings on ‘non essential’ items, and, unfortunately, some people include dental care in this category.

Less appointments

Providing that a patient is not suffering from any major ongoing dental issues, and especially if recent examinations have revealed no problems, it can be tempting to change the regularity of your dental appointments at our Burton practice to yearly, instead of every six months. Whilst we understand the temptation to do this, a lot can happen in six months, and a small crack in a tooth, which may be barely noticeable, can allow bacteria to enter the inner part of the tooth, causing dental decay.

Aside from any possible pain or discomfort this can cause, delaying your examination will almost certainly mean that a larger filling will be needed. Whilst this may not necessarily increase the price, a larger filling does mean a weaker tooth which could have repercussions later on. In some cases, the damage may have reached a point where a filling is not enough and a more expensive solution may be needed.

Hygienist visits

Some people might see a visit to the hygienist at Mike Allen’s Dental Practice as a bit of an ‘add on’ to their oral health care; that is, something that is nice to have but can easily be missed; especially if times are difficult financially. The truth is that your hygienist visits are very important for removing hardened bacteria from the difficult to reach places between your teeth. If left unchecked, this can lead to tooth decay or even gum disease, including periodontitis which can potentially result in tooth loss.

Hygienist visits should be seen as an important part of your overall oral health care plan and ideally should not be avoided to save money. In the long run, you may pay, not only with poor oral health, but with more expensive restoration treatments too.

A little help

At Mike Allen’s we try to help our patients as much as we can, something we have endeavoured to do over our last thirty years here in Burton. As part of this we offer Denplan which helps patients to spread the cost of dental treatment, making it more financially manageable.

For more information about general family dental care or our cosmetic procedures, please call Mike Allen’s Dental Practice on 01283 845345.