Showing posts with label Teeth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Teeth. Show all posts
Thursday, May 23, 2019
My Insurance! My Insurance! My Insurance! - Do you know anything about your insurance?
This is a true story.
A patient of ours was in the other day. We had just made new dentures for him and his wife.
We said we would send it to his insurance company to see if they would pay but he right away knew that they would not pay since he didn't have coverage for dentures. Of course, shortly after that we heard from the insurance company that he has no coverage for dentures (major coverage).
He did tell us that he pays $170 dollars a month for only dental insurance for himself and his wife.
$2040 dollars a year for him and his wife and there was no major coverage.
My staff were flabbergasted. They almost never have fillings to do and their cleanings amount to about 2 months of their premiums
So they pay their premiums faithfully every month but never get value. In other words, in their case, it is not worth it to get insurance. Pay your dental bills out of pocket and they would be left with a larger sum of money in their pockets.
Is this the case for everyone? Of course not but it was the case for them. Many people when they come to see me, say that they haven't been to the dentist for years because they didn't have dental insurance so they couldn't afford it. I always explain to them that dental insurance costs money and that if they put that same money aside to go to the dentist they would be surprised by what value they get.
The morals of the story?
1. Check what you are actually getting when you buy dental insurance. How much does it cost and is it really worth it.
2. You can still go to the dentist even if you don't have insurance.
All the best
Dr. Ron Barzilay
Having fun practising dentistry in Hamilton Ontario Canada
www.rondentist.com
PS. If you have any questions just send a reply to the post.
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
WILL MY FILLINGS FALL OUT IF I FLOSS?
WILL MY FILLINGS FALL OUT IF I FLOSS?
That is a question that I recently received from a new patient. He does not floss his teeth because he once had a filling fall out when he flossed. He also informed me that he now has a loose filling and he doesn't want to floss because it could come out.
I reassured the patient that if a filling is loose it will come out!
It has nothing to do with the floss or whether the hygienist touched it during a cleaning. If it is loose it is loose and it is going to fall out. Better it should happen sooner then later so you can have it repaired as soon as possible. The longer you wait with a loose filling in your mouth the more the tooth will decay under the filling and the greater damage done to the tooth.
To recap (no pun intended), a filling will not fall out because of flossing. It will only fall out if there is an existing problem with the filling.
Having fun doing dentistry in Hamilton Ontario Canada.
All the best
Dr. Ron Barzilay
www.rondentist.com
That is a question that I recently received from a new patient. He does not floss his teeth because he once had a filling fall out when he flossed. He also informed me that he now has a loose filling and he doesn't want to floss because it could come out.
I reassured the patient that if a filling is loose it will come out!
It has nothing to do with the floss or whether the hygienist touched it during a cleaning. If it is loose it is loose and it is going to fall out. Better it should happen sooner then later so you can have it repaired as soon as possible. The longer you wait with a loose filling in your mouth the more the tooth will decay under the filling and the greater damage done to the tooth.
To recap (no pun intended), a filling will not fall out because of flossing. It will only fall out if there is an existing problem with the filling.
Having fun doing dentistry in Hamilton Ontario Canada.
All the best
Dr. Ron Barzilay
www.rondentist.com
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Is it time to have all my teeth out?
How many times has a patient come in and said, "Dr. I want all my teeth out!"
So many times I have said, YES you are right it is time to have them out and so many times I have said, NO it is not time.
How does a dentist decide whether this patient needs or should have all their teeth out?
There are a number of issues we must look at before arriving at the decision. Remember, once you take them out, you can't put them back. Afterwards the patient may have to deal with other issues such as retention of a denture, gaginess and general discomfort. And of course, even though a patient wants all his teeth out that doesn't mean that we have to do it.
The simpler cases are when the patients teeth are hopeless. When, the teeth are so rotten or the teeth are moving so much that there is really no choice but to extract all of the patients teeth and make them dentures. It starts to get complicated when those rotten teeth can be fixed and those receded gums can also be stabilized. Then what?
A partial denture is better than a full denture because it is more stable in the mouth since it can use solid teeth as aids for stabilization. Of course, no denture is the best, if we can just fix your teeth or create a fixed bridge. Nothing to take out and of course the feel is the most natural.
So here we move into the grey area. A patient comes into the practise and he has a fair number of teeth that are decayed and moving. He has not brushed his teeth in a number of years. When I ask him if we can fix his teeth will he start brushing them? He answers NO. Then the teeth are going to be lost no matter what and there is no point in wasting time trying to save these teeth because no matter what they will develop new problems again after we have done all the work to fix them.
A patient comes in with decay in his teeth, we fix all the teeth and then 6 months later the patient returns with large amounts of decay just as he had entered on the first day. He now tells us that he has 5-6 Tim Horton's triple triples every day. (That is triple sugar with the coffee) He says he refuses to stop this as it is his one vice. In this case we would also take the teeth out since the battle is lost before we even fired the first shot.
Sometimes a patient will come in who hasen't seen the dentist in 15 years, she may have 1-2 cavities and a lot of cleaning to do, but she is adamant that she needs all her teeth out. Well of course we won't take her teeth out because she doesn't need it. We will try to make the patient understand that their situation doesn't need such drastic measures and that they would be a lot happier with their own teeth.
All of these situations have happened to me and were dealt with as I have described. Every case is different and requires a different response. On the whole, keeping your teeth is better than extracting them, even keeping a few teeth is better than extracting them all but in some situations extracting all the teeth is the treatment of choice. The black and white cases are easy to decide. But through years of experience, through discussions with our patients of their needs and wants, we learn to make the proper and informed choices in the gray zone.
All the best
Don't forget to come visit us at www.rondentist.com
So many times I have said, YES you are right it is time to have them out and so many times I have said, NO it is not time.
How does a dentist decide whether this patient needs or should have all their teeth out?
There are a number of issues we must look at before arriving at the decision. Remember, once you take them out, you can't put them back. Afterwards the patient may have to deal with other issues such as retention of a denture, gaginess and general discomfort. And of course, even though a patient wants all his teeth out that doesn't mean that we have to do it.
The simpler cases are when the patients teeth are hopeless. When, the teeth are so rotten or the teeth are moving so much that there is really no choice but to extract all of the patients teeth and make them dentures. It starts to get complicated when those rotten teeth can be fixed and those receded gums can also be stabilized. Then what?
A partial denture is better than a full denture because it is more stable in the mouth since it can use solid teeth as aids for stabilization. Of course, no denture is the best, if we can just fix your teeth or create a fixed bridge. Nothing to take out and of course the feel is the most natural.
So here we move into the grey area. A patient comes into the practise and he has a fair number of teeth that are decayed and moving. He has not brushed his teeth in a number of years. When I ask him if we can fix his teeth will he start brushing them? He answers NO. Then the teeth are going to be lost no matter what and there is no point in wasting time trying to save these teeth because no matter what they will develop new problems again after we have done all the work to fix them.
A patient comes in with decay in his teeth, we fix all the teeth and then 6 months later the patient returns with large amounts of decay just as he had entered on the first day. He now tells us that he has 5-6 Tim Horton's triple triples every day. (That is triple sugar with the coffee) He says he refuses to stop this as it is his one vice. In this case we would also take the teeth out since the battle is lost before we even fired the first shot.
Sometimes a patient will come in who hasen't seen the dentist in 15 years, she may have 1-2 cavities and a lot of cleaning to do, but she is adamant that she needs all her teeth out. Well of course we won't take her teeth out because she doesn't need it. We will try to make the patient understand that their situation doesn't need such drastic measures and that they would be a lot happier with their own teeth.
All of these situations have happened to me and were dealt with as I have described. Every case is different and requires a different response. On the whole, keeping your teeth is better than extracting them, even keeping a few teeth is better than extracting them all but in some situations extracting all the teeth is the treatment of choice. The black and white cases are easy to decide. But through years of experience, through discussions with our patients of their needs and wants, we learn to make the proper and informed choices in the gray zone.
All the best
Don't forget to come visit us at www.rondentist.com
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