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Although we hate to expend the time and money it takes to maintain the things we love, we all must truly strive to accomplish this maintenance. Money situations can become overwhelming with objects such as cars, houses, and boats that cost money to maintain. When we fail to invest time and money in maintenance, then it can comes back to haunt us with crippling fees and conditions. Sometimes unwanted maintenance can also involve our body. While we all agree that our body is more important than any one object we own, we still dread our next exam with the family doctor as much as we loathe the drudgery of cutting the grass and buying new tires. And who wouldn’t? Its time consuming, expensive and rarely is it convenient.

Many of the patients I see fall into two categories. Those who have either been lucky and never needed much work, or those who can’t seem to go more than a few years without requiring major dental work. Those who need work the most, often have been placed in some sort of life situation that prevents them from taking advantage of  regularly scheduled dental appointments involving comprehensive examination and cleaning. The lucky patients that appear unaffected by poor oral health have normally followed a strict schedule of dental maintenance with a dentist.

Examination allows dentists to discover problems before they affect patients permanently. Cleanings allow us to see dental problems more clearly and remove the rotting food debris that gets caught in and around the teeth. Clearly someone washing your back can do a more thorough job than you, simply because of direct vision. Direct vision also applies to teeth. Your dental hygienist has a bird’s eye view on the build up removed during a dental cleaning and even aids in identifying problems with teeth as they clean. Permanent dental problems require even more maintenance than our natural teeth as it may involve man made materials. Of course if our natural teeth are subject to fail, surely any dental restoration done by a dentist will  require regular tune-ups, hence the need for the exam and maintenance.

Unfortunately, dental expenses have escalated at a rate comparable to inflation. Dental insurance coverage, on the other hand, has lagged behind escalating dental costs. Most insurance plans don’t even cover all of a single dental emergency. As it turns out, missing the opportunity to stave off dental mishaps can lead to a huge monetary expense.

It is for this reason that prevention and maintenance must be implemented when caring for our cars, our pools, our hair, as well as the teeth. This will ultimately save time, money, and anguish. Everything we eat, goes into our mouth, and every idea we intend to share must exit our mouth before it enters the world. So, surely maintaining our mouth is necessary for self preservation.

Wouldn’t it be lovely to spend the minimum dental expense involved with maintenance versus the costly expense of waiting until a dental emergency occurs? If you find yourself in the car on your  way to see a dentist, while in pain, then the rest of your day will likely involve an unwanted bill and some time in a dental recliner. I’d much rather my patients enjoy that ride to Promenade Dental Care and take comfort in the idea that their value in dental maintenance has cost them less time and money than those who have neglected to care for their natural teeth.