Dental Care Is Not Expensive When Compared To The Cost Of Neglecting Your Teeth

Affordable tooth care at our Wickford dental practice

Many of our blogs focus on damage and potential harm to your teeth, often associating it with the pain and discomfort that can be experienced. This is obviously the main reason why our Cygnet Dental Practice patients should try to keep their teeth as strong and healthy as possible. But there is another factor – cost.

It isn’t unusual for people to tell us that treatment is expensive. We actually don’t think that it is for the value that people get, but we do understand that it can have an impact on your personal budget. The fact is though, that in most cases and accidents aside, much of the treatment needed is down to patients not looking after their teeth as well as they could have.

Preventative vs Restorative

Using our prices at the date of this blog, if we take a look at the comparative costs, we can see that a private examination is around £45 and an NHS one £22.50. Add to this, the cost of seeing a hygienist every six months for a scale and polish and you will be spending somewhere in the region of between £100 and £200 per year on preventative dental care. All in all, we think that this is a small price to pay for healthy teeth and gums.

If we take for example, someone who perhaps doesn’t look after their teeth quite as well as they should, and has say two fillings done during the year, on top of check ups and hygienist appointments you could be adding an extra £125 to £150 to your dental costs. Remember that these are for relatively minor treatments and there is no guarantee that if you neglect your teeth, this is all you will need. More significant treatment such as a root canal procedure and say a single tooth extraction, could add in the region of £300 upwards, on top of examinations and hygiene cleans.

The point we are making is not that having dental treatment at our Wickford dental surgery is expensive, but that this type of cost is largely avoidable if you take a conscious decision to take better care of your teeth.

Taking personal responsibility

There is only so much that we, as dentists, can do to help keep your teeth healthy. We can examine teeth and advise of potential problems ahead and how to avoid them. We can clean the teeth, removing harmful tartar that builds up over time, and we can, of course, perform restorative treatment where it is needed.

If we could wave a magic wand and wish all of our patients teeth were strong and healthy, we would, but … we can’t. The reality is that looking after our teeth and gums needs constant daily attention by the patient. This isn’t hard to do at all, but it can be easy to allow things to slip a little over time. We know that we do sometimes repeat ourselves, giving out routine dental care advice, but it really is the only way to keep your teeth and gums in good health.

Deep breath

So .. in order to help our patients look after their teeth, we offer another brief, but very important, reminder of what they need to do to keep their teeth in the best condition possible.

1. Brush your teeth morning and evening for at least two minutes using a fluoride toothpaste. Don’t eat or drink anything but water after brushing your teeth at night.
2. Use dental floss daily. Night time is better as there is more likely to be food trapped between the teeth from eating during the day. If you find this difficult, ask our hygienist to show you how it should be done.
3. Try to keep your sugar consumption as low as possible. Take care to check ingredients when it comes to ready made products.
4. Avoid acidic sugary fizzy drinks. The increase in the use of these is thought to be behind a rise in many dental problems. The acid in these drinks can seriously damage the protective enamel of your teeth.
5. Keep your appointments. Seeing a dentist at the Cygnet Dental Practice every six months means that we can spot potential trouble and offer advice, as well as providing early intervention where a problem exists.
6. See the hygienist to have your teeth and gums cleaned twice a year. This should not be a ‘nice extra’ but an essential part of your dental care.
7. Don’t ignore problems such as minor toothache. Get it checked out straight away. The problem won’t go away and will nearly always worsen.

The above will not just help you to have strong and healthy teeth but will benefit your pocket too. We are sure that all of our patients can think of things that they would rather spend their money on than paying for dental treatment. The simple tips above will help you to do just that!

If you need to make an appointment to see one of our team, whether for an examination or a specific issue that you have, you can arrange an appointment by calling the Cygnet Dental Practice on 01268 733078.