Dental Economics - Is Dentistry Really Expensive?
I often hear the comment that going to the dentist is very expensive (in addition to being scary and uncomfortable). There are times when it is - we have all heard of people spending sums like $30,000 to $50,000 to get implants done, $20,000 to get a smile makeover. The list goes on. But for more conventional and common situations Is this necessarily true?
Prevention is better than cure
For a person who attends dental checkups regularly and who maintains good oral hygiene, dentistry is usually not expensive. For example if the person visits twice a year and pays $100 per visit to get the teeth cleaned, examined and on occasion a small filling done which might cost $100,
What does the person get in return for this? During these visits we would seek to detect disease early and intervene early either by advising on improved oral hygiene, diet modification or when necessary restore any cavity. We would also seek to detect and prevent gum disease so that the person does not lose any teeth to gum problems.
Contrast this with the situation where a tooth (just 1 tooth) gets caries and the caries is allowed to progress and go untreated for a couple of years. When the caries affects the nerve of the tooth (and the person suffers a severe toothache as a consequence) that tooth will require a root canal treatment and crown to take away the pain and save the tooth.
This typically costs $1500-2000. If the tooth cannot be restored then it may need to be extracted and replaced with an implant (which typically costs $3600 onwards) or bridge (typically $1800-3000). In such a situation any cost saving that a person were to derive from not making regular dental visits would easily be wiped out.
Of course a person in the situation above can choose to extract a tooth and not replace it but then that is not always a feasible option and even when it is there are trade offs like reduced chewing efficiency, greater wear and tear on the remaining teeth, possibility of teeth shifting etc.
As a general rule, preventive dentistry saves you money. Dental neglect is what can end up being very expensive.
The lowest price item is not always the cost effective
Nobody wants to spend unnecessarily even if you can afford it. This is true in dental health just as much as in any other field of human endeavour. In many situations there is more than one available option so it is often tempting to simply choose the cheapest option available.
Nowhere do we see this issue more clearly than in the case of a tooth with a one corner fractured off but where the crack has not reached the nerve. In such a situation the most ideal restoration would be a crown or an onlay (a restoration manufactured in the same way as a crown but only covering the top of the tooth). But it is also possible to have a filling done and this is the cheaper option.
However the trade off in doing a filling is that it cannot take the same amount of biting load as an onlay/crown. This makes it more likely to fracture or dislodge necessitating restoration of the tooth once again. Now if a filling costs $150 (remember this would be a very large filling) and lasts 1 year but a crown costs $900 and lasts 10+ years it is easy to see that the crown is the more cost effective procedure even though it is more costly initially.
In general, the most optimal solution is the most cost effective one.
Prevention is better than cure
For a person who attends dental checkups regularly and who maintains good oral hygiene, dentistry is usually not expensive. For example if the person visits twice a year and pays $100 per visit to get the teeth cleaned, examined and on occasion a small filling done which might cost $100,
What does the person get in return for this? During these visits we would seek to detect disease early and intervene early either by advising on improved oral hygiene, diet modification or when necessary restore any cavity. We would also seek to detect and prevent gum disease so that the person does not lose any teeth to gum problems.
Contrast this with the situation where a tooth (just 1 tooth) gets caries and the caries is allowed to progress and go untreated for a couple of years. When the caries affects the nerve of the tooth (and the person suffers a severe toothache as a consequence) that tooth will require a root canal treatment and crown to take away the pain and save the tooth.
This typically costs $1500-2000. If the tooth cannot be restored then it may need to be extracted and replaced with an implant (which typically costs $3600 onwards) or bridge (typically $1800-3000). In such a situation any cost saving that a person were to derive from not making regular dental visits would easily be wiped out.
Of course a person in the situation above can choose to extract a tooth and not replace it but then that is not always a feasible option and even when it is there are trade offs like reduced chewing efficiency, greater wear and tear on the remaining teeth, possibility of teeth shifting etc.
As a general rule, preventive dentistry saves you money. Dental neglect is what can end up being very expensive.
The lowest price item is not always the cost effective
Nobody wants to spend unnecessarily even if you can afford it. This is true in dental health just as much as in any other field of human endeavour. In many situations there is more than one available option so it is often tempting to simply choose the cheapest option available.
Nowhere do we see this issue more clearly than in the case of a tooth with a one corner fractured off but where the crack has not reached the nerve. In such a situation the most ideal restoration would be a crown or an onlay (a restoration manufactured in the same way as a crown but only covering the top of the tooth). But it is also possible to have a filling done and this is the cheaper option.
However the trade off in doing a filling is that it cannot take the same amount of biting load as an onlay/crown. This makes it more likely to fracture or dislodge necessitating restoration of the tooth once again. Now if a filling costs $150 (remember this would be a very large filling) and lasts 1 year but a crown costs $900 and lasts 10+ years it is easy to see that the crown is the more cost effective procedure even though it is more costly initially.
In general, the most optimal solution is the most cost effective one.