I’m a really stressed-out guy. I’m a freelance writer and I have a lot of deadlines and projects to worry about. I’m a native New Yorker and I currently live in Southeast Asia – I’ve been here for years and I’m still experiencing culture shock. Even though I didn’t realize it, I was letting my stress to get me. I was waking up in the middle of the night with aching tooth pain. It made me appreciate how regular dental checkups can save you money.
Why Regular Dental Checkups Can Save You Money – Personal Perspective
Stress was causing me to develop bruxism – it is also known as teeth grinding or teeth gnashing. The muscles of the human face and jaw are very powerful. I was literally ripping my teeth apart and chipping them due to the intense grinding pressures I was exerting on them via teeth gnashing while asleep.
I caused myself a lot of personal and financial problems by not investing in regular dental checkups. And I live in a part of the world where getting quality dental care is very affordable as long as you vet your dentist.
I lost an incisor or molar. And it has affected my smile so much I can’t smile widely. I am near Thailand, which is one of the greatest countries to have quality restorative dental work on a budget.
Still, I must fly there and pay for dental implants. And getting dental implants is a three-month process – it sometimes lasts longer.
I should have seen a professional dentist sooner instead of waiting until my unconscious mind and stressed-out subconscious caused the muscles of my jaw to grind and crack my teeth.
Getting a checkup or inquiring about my somnambulistic tooth pain to a dentist before the problem worsened would have saved me a lot of pain and the need to strategize a dental tourist visit to Thailand.
Take care of your teeth and they will take care of you. Visit your dentist at least every six months.
It can save you a lot of money and could potentially even help to save your life. Before we talk about how regular dental checkups can save you money, let’s get a baseline for how much it costs to visit the dentist for an average checkup.
Do you know the difference between a dental checkup and a dental treatment or surgery?
Typical Dental Checkup Costs
Every though dental professionals advise people to visit their local dentist twice a year, most people go to the dentist annually or less often.
A dental checkup is just a check and periodical examination of your teeth. The dentist might examine your teeth and gums, clean them, or take an X-ray. Your dentist might give you a questionnaire or ask you questions about your health and diet.
You can tell a lot about a person by looking at their teeth. You can tell how often they brush, floss, or use mouthwash.
Plaque buildup can be an indication of infection, a bad diet, and even serious health problems. Plaque buildup on your teeth could, but not necessarily mirror plaque buildup in your arteries.
A dental checkup could help identify serious problems before they worsen – you shouldn’t skip them
And the best initiative for making appointments and keeping to them is the fact that regular dental checkups can save you money – a lot of money – in the long term.
An average dental checkup, which usually involves an examination and cleaning as basic procedures, can cost anywhere between $75 to $200+ depending on your insurance coverage. Without dental insurance, it might cost as much as $500 for a basic dental checkup.
A simple dental checkup can prevent you from needing dental treatment or surgery. And the cost of taking care of teeth and only increased in recent decades.
Dental care costs have increased by over 23% from 1995 to 2015.
A tooth extraction could cost anywhere between $75 to $600. A simple tooth extraction could cost hundreds of dollars if surgical cutting into the gums must be involved.
It might cost you $200 or more to get a tooth canal per tooth.
Want to get a dental veneer? You might have to pay a few hundred to $2,000 per tooth for the procedure.
A quality dental implant might cost $1,500 per tooth as a conservative baseline estimate. You might end up paying $3,000 to $5,000 per tooth for high-quality dental implants that last 30 or 40 years.
Regular dental checkups can save you money. A lot of it. Here are four reasons why regular dental checkups can save you money.
Diagnosing Tooth Decay Early
Undiagnosed tooth decay could affect one or multiple teeth. It could result in chronic halitosis problems. Undiagnosed could require the need for gum surgery.
Your dentist could give you simple preventative care solutions to follow during a basic checkup. It will be costly to skip a few dental checkups and find out you need multiple teeth removed or surgery.
Preventing the Need for Emergency Dental Procedures
We live in hard economic times. Over two-thirds of Americans could not pay for a $400 emergency if one occurred.
I’m in a developing country with missing and stressed, cracked teeth. It’s bad for me, but with the right amount of research, I can find quality but affordable healthcare nearby.
The United States is not famous for quality or cheap dental care, especially when it is needed during emergencies. How long would you live with missing or cracked teeth because you could not afford dental implants, crowns, or veneers in the aftermath of a dental emergency?
Regular dental checkups can save you money and prevent you from being surprised by an emergency dental problem that could have been detected earlier.
Detecting Dental Plaque Could Prevent a Heart Attack or Stroke
The same dental plaque and bacteria that a dentist finds in your mouth could mirror the plaque and bacterial buildup in your heart muscle.
Bacterial and plaque buildup in your mouth can actually migrate via blood vessels to your heart and make arterial blockage problems much worse.
Get a dental checkup. Your dentist might make a discovery that prevents you from needing heart surgery in the near future.
The conservative cost of heart bypass surgery ranges between $70,000 to $200,000. It may certainly cost you more than that. Need a heart transplant? Do you have $1 million to $1.6 million to pay for it?
A preventive dental checkup schedule could prevent the need for you to deal with any of that.
It Can Save Your Life as Well as Money
Research studies have been conducted to prove that preventative dental checkup care can save money as well as lives.
Do you have coronary heart disease or diabetes? Visit your dentist twice a year and you can save $550 annually on the treatments for your medical conditions.
Do you have both of these medical conditions? Then you can save almost $900 annually on related medical treatment for those conditions.
Read More
Risks of Getting Dental Procedures Abroad
Is it Better to Get Removable Partial Dentures for Long-Term Use?
4 Tips to Avoid Expensive Dental Treatments
Allen Francis was an academic advisor, librarian, and college adjunct for many years with no money, no financial literacy, and no responsibility when he had money. To him, the phrase “personal finance,” contains the power that anyone has to grow their own wealth. Allen is an advocate of best personal financial practices including focusing on your needs instead of your wants, asking for help when you need it, saving and investing in your own small business.